Enhancing Shanghai's International Competitiveness: Shanghai Development Report 2004/2005

Author: Wang Zhan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Since Shanghai proposed enhancing its comprehensive competitiveness as the main focus during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, the concept of urban competitiveness has been widely accepted both domestically and internationally. The Chinese University of Hong Kong published the "Shanghai-Hong Kong International Urban Competitiveness Report," and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "China Urban Competitiveness Report." Notably, the World Economic Forum, renowned for its research on national competitiveness, first released a global city competitiveness ranking at the 16th Shanghai Mayor's International Business Leaders' Forum in October 2004, making urban competitiveness the theme and most popular topic of the conference. From the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" onwards, with the end of China's transition period after joining the WTO, international competition will become fully domestic. Therefore, enhancing urban comprehensive competitiveness has become a pressing issue for Shanghai in the coming five years. Urban international competitiveness refers to a city's systematic ability to create value-added and achieve sustained growth in national wealth within the context of global economic integration. In essence, it is the capacity of a city to participate in international competition and allocate global resources. Compared to comprehensive competitiveness, international competitiveness places Shanghai on the global economic development coordinate system, emphasizing international comparisons and participation in international competition, thereby aligning more closely with Shanghai's strategic goal of building itself into an international economic, financial, trade, and shipping center. Enhancing urban international competitiveness is not a negation of enhancing urban comprehensive competitiveness but rather a continuation and deepening of the latter under new circumstances, reflecting distinct temporal characteristics and Shanghai-specific features. Urban international competitiveness is not an abstract concept but is reflected in various aspects, including industrial development, urban functions, district vitality, and enterprises' "going global" capabilities. Moreover, as the core city of the world's sixth-largest metropolitan area, Shanghai's international competitiveness depends not only on the city's own competitive strength but also on the overall competitiveness of the Yangtze River Delta metropolitan area and even the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The report "Enhancing Shanghai's International Competitiveness—Shanghai Development Report 2004/2005" focuses on the theme of how to enhance Shanghai's international competitiveness during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period. In addition to the introduction, the book is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter primarily discusses the necessity and overall approach for Shanghai to enhance its international competitiveness, while the remaining chapters, centered around the theme of improving competitiveness, delve into how Shanghai can achieve this through various aspects such as enhancing industrial innovation capabilities, accelerating the development of modern services, cultivating modern industrial clusters, achieving differentiated development among districts, speeding up enterprises' "going global," promoting the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, and developing the Yangtze River "Golden Waterway."