Shanghai aims to inject some 36 billion yuan (US$4.5 billion) in investment this year to develop the 300-square-kilometer Lingang New City, a vice mayor said at a press conference in Shanghai on Wednesday.

The model of the Lingang New City, Shanghai.

Of the total investment, 22.5 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion) will be used to build the basic infrastructure of Lingang, which is expected to accommodate up to 800,000 people when completed in 2020, Yang Xiong, the vice mayor of Shanghai, said.

The main aim of the high-profile press conference held at the Shanghai International Convention Center was to entice domestic and overseas enterprises to invest in Lingang, strategically located near Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Yangshan deepwater port.

Developers are gunning for a total of 120 billion yuan (US$14.95 billion) in investments by 2010, Yang said. "Lingang New City is not a general development zone, and it's different from the two other new cities of Songjiang and Jiading. It is a modern city that will be supported by strong industries, and will be a key link in the operations of Shanghai's two main commerce checkpoints."

Lingang will be built on an island at the entrance of Hangzhou Bay, connected to the main city center by Donghai Bridge. About 27.5 kilometers from the city's Luchaogang area in Nanhui District, Lingang is poised to play an important part in the Northeast Asia shipping industry, particularly when the Yangshan port becomes fully operational later this year.

According to a report in Shanghai Daily, the handling capacity of Yangshan port is about 200,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) a month.

Lingang will boast capabilities in five types of transportation including shipping, air, inland shipping, and highway and railway, conditions ideal for the development of a multi-modal logistics specialization.  

The city will be divided into five functional parts: the main city area, heavy equipment industry area, logistics area, main industry area and mixed-use area. Preferential policies will apply, and there are plans to include free trade zones and export processing zones. The city will also serve as a platform for six industrial manufacturing bases: automobiles, heavy equipment, logistics equipment, aviation equipment, and photoelectric equipment.

Project planners have projected the city's value-added potential to be 23.5 billion yuan (US$2.93 billion) by 2010, industrial output value at 50 billion yuan (US$6.23 billion), and financial revenue at 3 billion (US$373 million).

The first phase construction of seven primary and secondary municipal roads and 24 bridges is complete. Those roads stretch a total of 36 kilometers.
 
"The general structure of the city should be formed by 2010. The main city area will house the financial, business, education, travel, leisure and residential sectors. The initial residential population will be 350,000 and the developed area will measure 66 square kilometers," according to Liu Jiaping, the vice director of Shanghai Lingang New City Administrative Committee.

Cooperation agreements worth US$200 million were signed with foreign companies including Maersk Logistics and Sulzer Metco. Domestic companies such as China Ocean Shipping Company, China Shipping Logistics Co., Ltd., Shanghai Electric Group Company Ltd. also signed agreements with Lingang New City for projects worth 10 billion yuan (US$1.24 billion).

The new city committee aims to make Lingang New City the new Shanghai economy springboard. Lingang is the most significant portion of Shanghai's general urban planning system, codenamed "1966," which means 1 central city, 9 new cities, 60 towns and 600 key villages. 

(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, March 31, 2006)