At the municipal government press conference held on 2020/8/20, Chen Yin, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, Executive Vice Mayor, and Director of the Lingang New Area Administrative Committee, introduced the relevant details of the "Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of Lingang New Area Guided by the 'Five Importants' (2020-2022)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"). ThisThe Action Plan is a major initiative to mobilize city-wide resources to accelerate the construction of Lingang New Area and create a "growth pole," "engine," and "new highland" for the city's economic development. It serves as the roadmap and task book for the construction of Lingang New Area during the 2020-2022 period.Zhu Zhisong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Municipal Government and Executive Deputy Director of the Lingang New Area Administrative Committee; Zhu Min, Deputy Director of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission; Shen Weihua, Deputy Director of the Municipal Commerce Commission; Xu Jian, Deputy Director of the Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau; and Liu Ping, Chief Engineer of the Municipal Economy and Informatization Commission, attended the press conference and jointly answered reporters' questions.

One. Background, Overall Considerations, and Objectives and Tasks

On 2019/11/3, General Secretary Xi Jinping, while inspecting Shanghai, issued important instructions on the "Five Importants" for Lingang New Area (an important base for gathering domestic and overseas talent to carry out international innovation collaboration; an important hub for coordinating the development of onshore and offshore businesses; an important springboard for enterprises to go global and grow stronger; an important channel for better utilizing both domestic and international markets and resources; and an important testing ground for participating in international economic governance). To implement the new requirements of the "Five Importants," promote the effective implementation of the overall plan, management measures, and special support policies for Lingang New Area, and accelerate the creation of a special economic functional zone with greater international market influence and competitiveness, as well as a modern new city characterized by open innovation, smart ecology, industry-city integration, and business-friendly and livable environments, the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government organized relevant departments to compile the Action Plan. The plan was reviewed and approved at the meetings of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and the Executive Meeting of the Municipal Government, and will be officially released and implemented. The Action Plan is a major initiative to mobilize city-wide resources to accelerate the construction of Lingang New Area and create a "growth pole," "engine," and "new highland" for the city's economic development. It serves as the roadmap and task book for the construction of Lingang New Area during the 2020-2022 period.

The Action Plan sets out the overall goal for the Lingang New Area by 2022: to initially establish the basic framework of the "Five Important" initiatives, to initially build a high-standard institutional system for liberalized and facilitated investment and trade, to initially demonstrate the comprehensive advantages of Shanghai's core hub area for its "Four Core Functions," and to lay a solid foundation for the full realization of the "Five Important" initiatives by 2035.

First, significant enhancement of economic strength. The average annual growth rate of regional value-added will reach 25%; the cumulative total industrial output value will reach 6000 billion yuan; the total import and export volume will exceed 1150 billion yuan; and the container throughput of Yangshan Port will exceed 2300 million TEUs.

Second, significant improvement in development quality. Cultivate trillion-yuan industrial clusters in fields such as intelligent vehicles, integrated circuits, high-end equipment, and biopharmaceuticals; cumulatively add more than 1500 high-tech enterprises and innovative institutions; introduce and cultivate more than 20 headquarters-type institutions and more than 200 financial and investment institutions; and the number of international patent applications via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) will exceed 500.

Third, continuous optimization of the development environment. Add more than 20 major scientific and technological innovation platforms and carriers; ensure financial support for the real economy reaches over 1500 billion yuan; achieve an average annual increase of more than 50% in corporate cross-border financing; enable 100% of centrally undertaken approval service items to be handled entirely online; and completely abolish ancillary engineering fees for water, electricity, and gas supply for non-residential users.

Fourth, accelerated improvement of urban functions. Achieve basic full coverage of 5G networks, with deep coverage in key areas; increase bus route network density by 20%, raise station coverage by 20%, and pilot the application of driverless buses; add a total construction area of various types of housing of 900 square meters; achieve a harmless treatment rate of household waste of 100%; and ensure community public service facilities for education, health, and elderly care are accessible within 15 minutes.

 II. Main Content

The full text of the Action Plan is divided into 6 major parts, 14 key areas, and 42 specific measures, mainly including four aspects:

1. Build an International Innovation Collaboration Highland, Making Lingang New Area an Important Node in the Global Innovation-Driven Network. First, construct the International Innovation Collaboration Zone from a high starting point. Create spatial carriers to enhance the source capability of scientific and technological innovation, build major scientific and technological innovation platforms, construct a vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and comprehensively enhance intellectual property protection capabilities.

Second, strive to enhance the ability to gather domestic and overseas talent. Make Lingang New Area the preferred destination for domestic talent innovation and entrepreneurship, the attractive destination for overseas talent aggregation, and a habitat for comprehensive talent services; accelerate the implementation of reward policies based on direct economic contributions for domestic high-end talent; maximize the benefits of port electronic visa policies, and accelerate the implementation of subsidy policies for the differential individual income tax burden for overseas talent; implement talent housing purchase policies across the entire Lingang New Area.

2. Build an Industrial Cluster Highland with International Market Competitiveness, Constructing New Spaces, New Momentum, and New Patterns for High-Quality Development.

First, create world-class frontier industrial clusters. Increase cultivation efforts, deepen external cooperation, and promote leapfrog development in industrial scale and level. For production and R&D enterprises in key fields and core links such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, and civil aviation that meet the conditions, implement the policy of reducing corporate income tax to a 15% rate for 5 years from the date of establishment. Accelerate the construction of characteristic brand parks such as Oriental Chip Port, Life Blue Bay, and Large Aircraft Park, as well as the China-Japan (Shanghai) Local Development Cooperation Demonstration Zone and the International Economic Organization Agglomeration Zone.

Second, accelerate the development of onshore and offshore businesses. Build the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone into the comprehensive bonded zone with the highest level of openness in China; vigorously develop the headquarters economy; actively develop offshore trade, transit trade, and service trade, and build an offshore agglomeration center; create high-level factor resource trading platforms such as the Shanghai Natural Gas Pricing Center. Accelerate the implementation of special tax policies for service transactions between enterprises within the physical fence area, as well as tax policies adapted to overseas investment and offshore business development, and build the Shanghai International Service Trade Demonstration Base.

Third, increase financial support. Create a highland for the allocation of high-end financial resources, promote financial services for the real economy, and achieve clustered development of cross-border finance. Accelerate the construction of the Modern Service Industry Agglomeration Zone around Dishui Lake. Expand the pilot program for unified cross-border capital pools for local and foreign currencies, and establish the Lingang New Area Financial Rule of Law Pilot Zone.

Fourth, actively develop high-end shipping services. Strive to enhance the service levels of airports and seaports, and strengthen high-end shipping service functions. Improve policies related to tax refunds at ports of departure and the ship registration system for "China Yangshan Port" vessels, and create a regional aviation headquarters base and an international hub center for air express parcels.

Fifth, vigorously develop the digital economy. Accelerate the construction of the International Data Port; build the brand of the online new economy; launch the construction of the "Information Flying Fish" Global Digital Economy Innovation Island; accelerate the construction of vehicle-road cooperative driverless road test scenarios; and create an internationally leading and domestically first-class industrial internet R&D and transformation platform.

3. Build a Modern New City with High-Quality Living, Providing Strong Urban Functional Support for the Completion of the "Five Importants."

First, accelerate the construction of a node-based and hub-based urban transportation system. Construct an external rapid transportation network, improve multimodal transport collection and distribution facilities, accelerate the improvement of the multi-level backbone road network system, and implement a bus-priority development strategy; construct a "15, 30, 60, 100" travel service circle (i.e., travel times from Dishui Lake to Pudong Hub, Longyang Road Hub, Hongqiao Hub, and neighboring cities in the Yangtze River Delta are 15, 30, 60, and 100 minutes, respectively).

Second, strengthen comprehensive infrastructure support. Advance the construction of new information infrastructure and build a "1+2+6+X" comprehensive energy service system. By 2022, establish a comprehensive energy management and control platform to create an "integrated smart city energy brain"; and build a demonstration zone for communication network development that leads globally.

Third, focus on optimizing and beautifying the ecological environment. Accelerate the integrated construction of water, green spaces, and forests, strengthen the construction of water supply and drainage infrastructure, and increase efforts in environmental protection and remediation. Construct a unified collection, transportation, treatment, and management system for solid waste across the entire area.

Fourth, focus on improving public services. Accelerate the integrated development of commerce, culture, sports, and tourism, construct a multi-level and fully covered education system, and enhance the level of medical and health care services.

Fifth, strengthen planning guidance and land support. Compile plans with high starting points and high standards, and utilize land with high quality and high performance.

4. Strengthen organizational leadership and support guarantees to ensure the action plan is implemented effectively.

First, strengthen Party building guidance and organizational construction. Grant the Lin-gang Special Area greater autonomy in development, reform, and independent innovation management.

Second, build a business environment that reflects the level of international economic governance. Continuously deepen the reforms to streamline administration, delegate power, and improve services, and actively strive for breakthroughs in a new round of policy and institutional innovations. Establish a one-stop mechanism for resolving international commercial disputes and an international legal service center. Fully implement Shanghai's "Business Environment Version 3.0" and construct a characteristic business environment indicator evaluation system of "18+N". Establish a full-process risk prevention system and accelerate the launch and operation of Version 2.0 of the integrated information management service platform. Continuously increase risk stress tests for the open economy to make new contributions to China's all-around expansion of opening up in the new era.

Overview of the Shanghai Lin-gang Special Area

The Lin-gang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "Special Area") was approved by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to be established in the area south of the Dazhi River in Shanghai and south of Pudong International Airport. In accordance with the principle of "overall planning and phased implementation," the initial startup areas include Nanhui New City, the Lin-gang Equipment Industrial Zone, Xiaoyangshan Island, and the area south of Pudong International Airport. The establishment of the Special Area is a major strategic deployment for further opening up made by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, taking into account the overall situation and making scientific decisions. It is an important measure in the new era to demonstrate China's clear attitude of adhering to all-around opening up and to proactively lead the healthy development of economic globalization.

The Special Area is located in the southeast of Shanghai, bordering Pudong International Airport to the north and connecting to the Yangshan International Hub Port to the south. It is an important node in Shanghai's coastal corridor, with significant advantages in comprehensive transportation provided by sea, air, rail, road, inland waterway, and rail transit. In accordance with the general requirements and development goals of promoting all-around high-level opening up at a deeper level, in wider fields, and with greater intensity, by 2025, a relatively mature system of investment and trade liberalization and facilitation will be established, a number of functional platforms with higher degrees of openness will be created, and a cluster of world-class enterprises will be gathered, significantly enhancing regional creativity and competitiveness, and substantially increasing economic strength and total economic output; by 2035, a special economic functional zone with strong influence and competitiveness in the international market will be built, forming more mature and standardized institutional achievements, creating a core function for the global allocation of high-end resource elements, and becoming an important carrier for China's deep integration into economic globalization.

The Special Area benchmarks against internationally recognized free trade zones with the strongest competitiveness. On the basis of applying various opening-up and innovation measures of the pilot free trade zones, it implements opening-up policies and systems with strong international market competitiveness, increases risk stress tests for the open economy, and facilitates convenient investment and operation, free entry and exit of goods, convenient capital flow, highly open transportation, free professional practice for personnel, and rapid information connectivity between the Special Area and overseas regions. The Special Area encourages high-quality international capital to enter public service fields such as education, healthcare, elderly care, culture and sports, park construction, and urban operations, strengthens the construction and management of various infrastructures, enhances high-quality international urban service functions, and builds a modern new city that is open and innovative, smart and ecological, integrated with industry and city, and suitable for business and living.