Zhaoxiang, Xujing, Huaxin, Chonggu and Baihe are five towns in the east of suburban Qingpu District, adjoining the Hongqiao Business District. The National Exhibition and Convention Center, the venue for the third China International Import Expo, is situated within these five towns.

The towns are also an important part of the Yangtze River Delta Ecology and Greenery Integration Demonstration Zone, endowing them with obvious favorable geographic and strategic advantages.

Authorities have been actively exploring the coordinated growth of the five towns since the beginning of this year to accelerate their transformation from town-based to regional economic development, officials said.

An entire land and space planning covering the five towns has been worked out, highlighting the unitarity of policy, consistency of rules and synergy of implementation. This guarantees coordinated development of the five towns.

A specific fund on the coordinated development of the east Qingpu region has been set up, forming a “1+X” investment and financing system with the application of financial instruments such as policy finance, special enterprise bonds, asset-backed securities and real estate investment trusts. So far, work involving 7.8 billion yuan (US$1.16 billion) of the budget allocation has been completed.

The market development mechanism has been beefed up with the introduction of central enterprises, state-owned companies and various social capitals to raise operation efficiency and quality.

Incentives and office support are given to newly invested and cross-region layout projects to encourage the landing of good ventures.

Companies will be spurred to get involved in the integrated development of the region through the evaluation of their operation performance.

A regional “West Hongqiao Business District” brand has been created, with Xujing Town the key area and the other four towns its extended areas.

Huaxin Town is positioned as the key area of the “National Logistics Hub” regional brand, with Chonggu and Baihe towns the subcenters and the rest extended areas.

Zhaoxiang Town is the key area of the “Shixi Software Information Park” regional brand, and the remaining towns are its extended areas.

The land and space planning of east Qingpu highlights fields such as transportation, public service and village development. And, a development belt, six development axis, one history and culture corridor, three ecological landscape corridors and two regional centers have been set up.

A comprehensive transportation system serving the high-quality and integrated development of the region has been created to break the bottleneck of cross-area roads and boost the integration of municipal roads and village roads.

A public service layout system has been formed, with deficiencies in the allocation of public service resources resolved overall.

In terms of rural revitalization, authorities are looking to introduce some cultural, entertainment and healthcare facilities with regional scale to the countryside areas and redevelop them.

Environmental plans are being implemented to enrich visitors’ waterfront scenery appreciation and activity experiences.

Greenery will be increased with parks and waterfront open spaces a priority in new construction plans. Two new countryside parks have also been earmarked.

Construction on the west extension of Metro Lines 2 and 13 has been accelerated, and the expansion projects of G15 and G50 expressways are on the agenda.

Construction on four connection roads linking towns, such as the Songjian Road S. (Xinjingbang Bridge-Songze Avenue) and Lucai Road (Huawei Road-Huachong Highway) is proceeding smoothly.

The region is creating a better business environment with project review and approval procedures optimized to improve efficiency.

Supporting facilities for infrastructure have been improved, covering road network, public transport, water and power supply and sewage drainage in the east part of the region.

Construction of new infrastructure such as 5G has also been accelerated amid improving 5G application scenarios, officials said.

The construction of intelligent industrial parks such as Shixi Software Information Park, intelligent office buildings, transportation, communities and villages is on track. Among them, construction of Shixi Software Information Park has passed appraisal.

Centering on scientific innovation, business and trade, two to three 100-billion-yuan-level industrial clusters for express delivery and logistics and software information and a batch of 10-billion-yuan-level industrial platforms covering biomedicine (high-end medical apparatus and instruments), high-end equipment (auto parts), BeiDou plus aviation, new retail plus trade, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), culture and innovation and tourism will be created within three to five years in the region.

The region will make use of the spillover effect of the CIIE and actively attract headquarters of famous companies and leading firms of key industries or chains from home and abroad and vie for projects of key industries or chains, officials said.

The Bailian Outlets Plaza in Qingpu will be expanded and upgraded.

Supporting policies for different industries, with focus on high-end information technology, biomedicine and intelligent logistics platforms, will be optimized.

The development of the Shixi Software Information Park, the BeiDou Navigation West Hongqiao Base, the Huaxin Logistics Hub, Xujing online economy and Chonggu biomedicine industrial platforms will be accelerated.

An integrated business investment platform and key project information database will be established to enhance sharing of resources and information in the region.

Authorities are also making life more convenient and comfortable for residents through a sharing mechanism of public service facilities like education, medical treatment, culture and sports and senior care.

Eighteen tasks on public sanitation and landscape, environment and hygiene, and ecological environment in the five towns have been worked out to ensure a clean environment.

Fifteen key streets in the region are now deemed “clean enough to sit on.”

For areas with big potential public security hazards, an information database of enterprises and businesses has been established, achieving information sharing in the whole region. Joint law enforcement and patrols have been conducted at border areas of different towns to prevent a return of irregularities.

A “grid network” mechanism has been implemented at 61 spots, targeting the whole region, by merging police, urban management and market watchdog authorities. Intelligent application scenarios are being promoted for smart urban management.

Joint campaigns have also been conducted at border areas of the five towns, targeting irregularities like shared bikes, garbage sorting.