Chinese President Xi Jinping will chair a meeting of officials from the Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, urging them to make concerted efforts to reinforce the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, one of his signature projects, sources familiar with the matter told the Post.
The meeting, to be held on Wednesday or Thursday during his three-day visit to Shanghai, will also be attended by ministry-level officials from Beijing, the sources said.
Integration of the YRD, which encompasses an area with a population of 240 million, is a national strategy initiated by Xi in 2018.
Synchronisation between Shanghai and the three neighbouring provinces is being stepped up to create synergies, as they adjust their industrial composition, extend highways, ports, railways and bridges, and allocate land resources to chase high-quality growth.
China to build glistening new mega airport in Yangtze River Delta
China to build glistening new mega airport in Yangtze River Delta
The YRD is seen as a rival to the Greater Bay Area that comprises nine mainland Chinese cities in Guangdong province, plus Hong Kong and Macau. The two economic zones will compete as they open up their markets to lure talent and capital.
“Shanghai remains an economic locomotive for China because of its link with the foreign markets via the ports and airports,” said Ding Haifeng, a consultant at Shanghai financial advisory firm Integrity. “Inflow of capital and talent will eventually benefit the development of the YRD.”
On Tuesday, the president visited the Shanghai Futures Exchange, in a symbolic gesture that underlines Beijing’s support for a strong and healthy finance sector. It is the first time since 2018 that the president has visited a financial organisation in Shanghai, a city which the Chinese leadership hopes will be transformed into an international financial centre.
On October 31, the mainland leadership said in a statement after the closing of the two-day central financial work conference, that efforts must be made to strengthen Shanghai’s role as an international financial hub with a bigger impact on domestic and global economies.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange, which was founded in 1999, is one of China’s three commodity futures bourses and now trades 23 types of futures contracts for commodities ranging from copper and zinc to crude oil and gold.
Derivatives based on crude oil and rebar, a type of steel used for house construction, are the most actively traded contracts, accounting for 19 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, of the total turnover in 2022, the exchange’s data showed.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange also owns the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, a bourse set up in 2018 to launch crude oil futures trading as China seeks to promote the internalisation of the yuan and gain more control over the pricing of commodities globally. Foreign investors are able to trade crude oil contracts on the exchange without restrictions, while other types of commodity contracts on the exchange are available to traders approved by China’s financial regulators.
