(Yicai) April 15 -- Shanghai officials have given an update on progress with the “five new cities” plan, an initiative that involves a major shift from a centralized city model toward a more polycentric metropolitan structure.

This year’s city action plan was discussed at a press conference held today by Shanghai’s information office, with a focus on Qingpu New City. Officials from the Shanghai Municipal Development & Reform Commission, the body responsible for the city’s economic and social development strategies, and Qingpu district provided an introduction to the latest plan for Shanghai and Qingpu.

The action plan has three main considerations: focusing on key areas to achieve breakthroughs in industries and public services; strengthening the collaboration between urban and suburban areas to enhance the resource capacity of the new cities; and emphasizing regional linkage to empower and enhance the collaborative development between the new cities and surrounding cities as well as new towns.

Qingpu has developed its own action plan, which aims to strengthen sectors such as the low-altitude economy and to gather industrial ecosystem resources. An agreement on deepening cooperation has been signed with Fudan University to jointly establish an innovation center, which will aim to enhance the quality of urban space and improve the integrated transportation system.  

Moving forward, officials said that implementation of the various tasks outlined in the plan will be accelerated, so that development of the new cities continues to gather momentum.

Shanghai announced the plan to develop “new cities” in the five suburbs of Jiading, Qingpu, Songjiang, Fengxian, and Nanhui in 2021.

The goal is to shift from a single centralized urban area to a city cluster that radiates outwards across several thousand square kilometers. It signifies a transition in the development of Shanghai's urban space from a focus on the centre of the city to the overall development of the metropolitan area.

Editor: Tom Litting