Enhance Shanghai's International Competitiveness (Shanghai Development Report 2004/2005)

Author: Wang Zhan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Since Shanghai proposed enhancing urban comprehensive competitiveness as the main theme during the "11th 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 City Competitiveness Report," and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "China City Competitiveness Report." Particularly renowned for its research on national competitiveness, the World Economic Forum, at the 16th Shanghai Mayor's International Business Leaders' Forum in October 2004, first released a global city competitiveness ranking, making urban competitiveness the theme and most popular topic of this year's forum. From the "12th Five-Year Plan" onwards, with the end of China's WTO transition period, international competition will comprehensively shift towards domesticization. Therefore, how to enhance urban comprehensive competitiveness has become a pressing issue for Shanghai in the next five years. Urban international competitiveness is a city's systematic ability to create value-added and achieve sustained growth in national wealth within the context of global economic integration. Essentially, it is a city's capacity 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, thus 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 Enhancement of Shanghai's International Competitiveness—2004/2005 Shanghai Development Report explores the theme of how to enhance Shanghai's international competitiveness during the "12th 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 focus closely on improving international competitiveness, respectively analyzing how Shanghai can enhance its competitiveness from aspects such as boosting industrial innovation, accelerating the development of modern services, cultivating modern industrial clusters, achieving differentiated development among districts, speeding up enterprises' "going global," promoting Yangtze River Delta integration, and building the Yangtze River "Golden Waterway."