SHANGHAI, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai's economy exceeded 5 trillion yuan (about 695.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, mayor of the east China metropolis, Gong Zheng, said Wednesday.
Shanghai's gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have grown by about 5 percent year on year in 2024, Gong said while delivering a government work report at the ongoing third session of the 16th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress. Shanghai also targeted GDP growth of around 5 percent for 2025.
The 2024 feat comes just three years after Shanghai's GDP first surpassed 4 trillion yuan. Shanghai in 2006 became the first Chinese mainland city to have a GDP of more than 1 trillion yuan.
The 2024 growth was hard-won given the grim and complex economic situation and rising risks and challenges at home and abroad, said Sun Lixing, a local political advisor and a researcher with the Institute of World Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
The achievement came after Shanghai took a series of measures to optimize its economic structure and boost growth momentum and innovation, said Ma Haiqian, vice president of the Shanghai Academy of Development and Reform.
In 2024, Shanghai accelerated the building of itself into an international economic center, financial center, trade center, shipping center and sci-tech innovation center, Gong said.
The megacity focused on the development of new quality productive forces, introducing policies to support industries including blockchain, low-altitude economy, large aircraft, new energy storage, new materials, ultra-high-definition displays and nuclear power, while also establishing 28 test sites for future industries last year. Notably, Shanghai boasted 1,782 licensed financial institutions in 2024.
Shanghai's total research and development expenditure accounted for around 4.4 percent of its GDP last year, according to the government work report.
The scale of Shanghai's three leading industries, namely integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence (AI), reached 1.8 trillion yuan in 2024.
The development of a variety of new industries and business models, as well as reform and opening-up efforts, have served as strong boosts to Shanghai's economic growth, said Hu Yiming, a deputy to the local legislature and a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Shanghai, at the forefront of China's reform and opening up, saw its combined import and export value reach a new record high of 4.27 trillion yuan last year.
Shanghai Port's container throughput totaled 51.51 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2024 -- ranking first in the world for 15 consecutive years, the government work report revealed.
As a popular foreign investment destination, the metropolis recorded 17.5 billion U.S. dollars of foreign capital in actual use last year. It was home to 1,016 regional headquarters of multinational corporations and 591 foreign-funded R&D centers in 2024, including 60 and 30, respectively, established last year, the government work report said.
Concerning 2025, Gong said Shanghai will work to greatly boost consumption and develop its debut, silver and nighttime economies as well as its live-streaming economy, while promoting the consumption of automobiles and green products.
In addition, this major Chinese financial hub will do its utmost to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, expand high-level opening up in service sectors, such as healthcare and cultural tourism, and strive to secure more major foreign investment projects, the report stated.
Local authorities will also launch a new round of 58 reform measures to improve the Shanghai business environment, the report added. The metropolis also aims to keep its surveyed urban unemployment rate within 5 percent in 2025.
Sun, with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that local authorities introduce more measures to nurture digital, service and green consumption, as well as issue more coupons and organize more shopping festivals to encourage consumer spending.
With its GDP of more than 5 trillion yuan, Shanghai is playing a bigger role in driving the growth of the entire Yangtze River Delta, which also includes the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, said Zhang Xueliang, dean of the School of Urban and Regional Science at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
The economic size of the Yangtze River Delta is roughly equivalent to that of Germany or Japan, further enhancing the status of this world-class city cluster in the delta region, Zhang said.
"Shanghai serves as a window for the world to observe China's economy. It demonstrates not only a robust regional economy, but also the resilience and potential of China's entire economy," Zhang added. ■