Investment Environment

Since the founding of New China, Shanghai has invested 246.1 billion yuan in urban infrastructure facilities, including investment of 240.1 billion yuan made in the past 20 years since the initiation of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, with an average annual growth rate of 24.7 percent. A large number of important infrastructure projects have been set up, such as the Nanpu, Yanpu, Xupu and Fengpu bridges, the inner-ring elevated highway, the south-north overhead highway, the No.1 subway route, the multiple tracking of the tunnel in the East Yan'an Road, the first phase of the sewage treatment project, and the Shanghai Section of the Shanghai-Nanjing Express-way. Shanghai has taken on an entirely new look.

Shanghai's railway transport network plays a significant role in the national system. In 1998, the Shanghai railway station handled 34.3 million tonnes of freight and 27.6 million passengers; and every day 73 pairs of trains used the new railway station. Shanghai is the largest port in China, as well as a famous comprehensive international transfer port. Now, the port has 135 berths, including 67 I0,000-dwt berths. In 1998, it handled 164 million tonnes of freight, and 3.0663 million international standard con- tainers, a number which ranks 11th in the world. Shanghai's ocean-going transportation has established contacts with over 500 ports and some 600 shipping companies of more than 200 countries and regions. Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport is one of the three major international airports in China. There are now regular flights to 102 domestic and foreign cities, and more than 300 planes take off or land every day, including some 60 international flights. In 1998, the airport handled 6.95 million passengers. Shanghai's highways radiate in all directions, and a high-way passenger transport network radiating to 15 provinces and municipalities has been formed. There are more than 130 trans-provincial bus lines, reaching I,288 cities, counties and towns in China. In 1998 the highway passenger traffic was 19.22 million, and the highway freight traffic reached 264 million tons. The urban traffic network of Shanghai has been improved with each passing day, with advanced traffic management means. At the end of 1998, Shanghai had I,098 public traffic routes, and 15,300 public buses and other vehicles. In 1998, they carried 2.488 billion people, transporting 6.82 million passengers a day on average. Shanghai's taxi service has developed rapidly. At the end of 1998 it had 41,000 taxis.

Shanghai's post and telecommunications have developed rapidly, and its public telecommunication ability has been greatly strengthened. At the end of 1998, the total telephone exchange capacity reached 6.18 million circuits, and 4.31 million households had telephones installed. Through DDD and IDD, people in Shanghai can make phone calls to all parts of the world. With the promotion of some 50 new means, such as pagers, mobile telephones, facsimile, E-mail, teleconferencing, picture-phones, multi-media information service, the southern coastal optical cable and the Sino-Japan submarine cable, Shanghai has greatly strengthened its international telecommunications capability. At the end of 1998, it established mail direct-sealing relations with 97 countries and regions; its international express mail service reaches more than 200 countries and regions, and direct postal routes were established with 34 countries and regions.

Shanghai is advanced in finance. In recent years, it has opened its financial fields wider to the outside world. At the end of 1998, it had 2,450 financial institutions with both Chinese and foreign investment, and had licensed 62 foreign-funded financial institutions from more than 20 countries and regions, ranking first in China in the number and variety of foreign-funded financial institutions. At present, 19 foreign-funded banks have been approved to move to Pudong to engage in Renminbi business. A financial system with the People's Bank of China as the central bank, the state-owned commercial banks as the mainstay, and the co-existence of various kinds of financial institutions has basically formed.

Shanghai has 126 star-rated hotels, including seven five-star ones. In 1998, Shanghai received l .5271 million tourists from 177 countries and regions, of whom l.1755 million were foreigners.

In 1990, the Party Central Committee and the State Council formally proclaimed that Pudong should be opened up and developed. In the past nine years, it has made great progress. In 1998. the GDP of the Pudong New Area was 70.885 billion yuan, or more than quadruple the 1990 figure, with an average annual growth rate of 21.3 percent. The proportion of Pudong's GDP in Shanghai's total GDP increased from 8.I percent in 1990 to 19.2 percent in 1998. To improve the investment environment, the Pudong New Area has adhered to putting the construction of urban infrastructure facilities first. In the past nine years, Pudong has invested 62 billion vuan in urban infrastructure facilities, making up 26.8 percent of the Pudong New Area's total investment in fixed assets. Thanks to its favorable location and improved investment environment, Pudong has attracted a large number of domestic and foreign investors, and has become an investment hot spot for domestic and foreign business people. By the end of 1998, it had signed 5,472 agreements for foreign-invested projects, Involving US$ 17.7 billion. Of these, large projects each involving more than US$ I0 million numbered 449. Altogether, 88 trans-national companies have settled in Pudong and have invested in 149 projects.