Xue Kan, Party secretary of Yangpu, promotes the district's business environment to global investors.
Shanghai's Yangpu District hosted a global promotion on Friday night to showcase its waterfront region and attract investors and visitors from across the world.
The event, held along the Huangpu River, featured a stunning lighting show that illuminated the district's outdoor buildings and attracted more than 400 guests, including government officials, business leaders and representatives from academic and financial institutions.
The promotion, themed "Hi Yangpu, Hi Future," highlighted the district's commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship along the riverside area, known as the Left Bund.
Ni Bing, executive vice director of Yangpu, introduced its unique location along the 15.5-kilometer waterfront, making it one of Shanghai's most attractive investment hot spots.
The riverside area along the Huangpu River is known as the birthplace of China's modern industries with the nation's first water, electricity, shipbuilding and textile companies. Many of the industrial buildings, such as the iconic Yangshupu Power Plant, have been preserved during redevelopment of the riverside region.
Yangpu's riverside area along the Huangpu River is known as the birthplace of China's modern industries.
Yangpu has been focusing on creating a favorable business environment that fosters both innovation and entrepreneurship, Ni said.
The Changyang Belt Park that covers 7.46 square kilometers along the river, for example, is one of the two online new economy eco-parks along with the Zhangjiang Online park in the Pudong New Area.
The district government said the Changyang eco-park will not be like traditional high-tech parks with "cold technology," but full of life and humanity, while the "gene" of the city's century-old industrial heritages along the river will be inherited by the online new economy tech firms.
The future development of the Yangpu waterfront will also focus on the Fuxing Island, a strategic reservation zone of Shanghai's 2035 master plan and northern and southern sections of the waterfront.
The 1.2-square-kilometer island on the Huangpu River is known for its history and attractive scenery.
More than 400 people, including government officials, business leaders and representatives from academic and financial institutions, attended the event.
The main tourist attraction on the island is Fuxing Island Park, which opened in 1951. The historic Bailu, or White Cottage, is on the northern end of the park where the former Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek stayed from April 26 to May 7, 1949, before he retreated to Taiwan Island.
Nineteen plots of land along the river with a total area of 390,000 square meters, equivalent to about 50 standard football pitches, were released at the meeting to attract global investors. Some 1.39 million square meters of constructions will be built on the lands.
Apart from the Changyang Belt, Yangpu has also developed the GKIC (Great Knowledge and Innovation Community) park near the Wujiaochang subcenter, which has been listed as one of China's 15 demonstration parks in the cultural sector, the only one of its kind in Shanghai.
More than 1,200 high-tech firms, including over 250 unicorn start-ups, are rising from the innovation parks. Thanks to the tech firms, the number of invention patents per 10,000 people has reached 120 in Yangpu, ranking the top in Shanghai's downtown.
City and district officials jointly start a light presentation for the Yangpu riverside region.
Seventeen companies signed contracts with Yangpu at the meeting, including US commercial real estate company Tishman Speyer, Hong Kong real estate developer Shui On Land, China's tech giant Huawei, sports brand Nike, online delivery platform Meituan and popular streaming platform Bilibili.
Construction is in full swing along the waterfront, forming a vibrant "super enterprise aggregation area," according to the district government.
Yangpu is also home to more than 10 universities, including Fudan, Tongji and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. The district has deepened cooperation among the universities and innovation parks, the district government said.
The promotion meeting marks the beginning of Yangpu's global investment promotion campaign mainly for its waterfront region. More such events will be launched abroad in future, the government said.
