Shanghai: China's State Council, the cabinet, has approved the merger of the Shanghai Pudong New District with the neighboring Nanhui district, with major implications port-wise, designed to expedite Shanghai's bid to be a genuine international maritime centre by 2020.
The expanded Pudong New district will spread 1,210.41 square kilometers with 2.686 million registered residents, said Chen Qiwei, a spokesman for the municipal government.
The merging of Nanhui District with Pudong New Area will help accelerate Shanghai's development in shipping, business and manufacturing.
The Yangshan Deep-water Port and the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone will both come under one government entity.
Logistics and shipping companies registered in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone are expected to have more access to land in Nanhui District.
"This will make easier for city residents to go to work in the New City and an increasing number of companies will be willing to set up offices in the district," Yang Zhouyi, Secretary-General of the Development and Reform Research Institute for Pudong, told local media. "We will be able to lure more higher-end service providers and big shipping groups to be located in Lingang New City and this will do more benefit than raising the throughput of containers at the ports of Shanghai."
The free trade zone in Waigaoqiao is almost filled so the city government needs to speed up the development of Lingang New City. "That is how we think the merging of Nanhui and Pudong New Area came into being and efforts from the government of the Pudong district alone is not enough," Yang said.
The transport of cargo through inland waterways instead of highways will also be facilitated now that the two districts are merged. [09/05/09]
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