It has been a hectic September at Haitong Pier, one of China's largest auto-export terminals, in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, with cargo ships fully loaded with new energy vehicles (NEVs) being checked and cleared for departure.
Produced by companies like Chery, Geely and other Chinese carmakers, the NEVs have been forming long queues ahead of boarding, before being shipped to destinations in Europe, the Middle East and South America.
The bustling scene is a microcosm of the pioneering role that the metropolis of Shanghai has undertaken in reform, opening-up and economic development.
DEVELOPMENT VANGUARD
Over the past decade, Shanghai has been the testing ground for institutional innovation and spearheading high-quality growth, sharing opportunities with the world.
Just three or four years ago, only about 10 percent of the automobiles from Haitong Pier were exported to Europe. In the first half (H1) of 2022, the proportion climbed to 40 percent.
"Over the past two years, a vacancy on ro-ro ships delivering cars to Europe has often been hard to get," said Xi Jialin, executive director of the marketing department of Shanghai Haitong International Automotive Terminal Co Ltd.
In H1, despite the impact of the novel coronavirus flare-ups in several regions across China, the throughput of Haitong Pier rose by more than 20 percent year-on-year, and exports logged a year-on-year increase of more than 50 percent.
Over the past decade, Shanghai has seen emerging industries mushrooming and the business environment constantly improving.
The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), the first pilot FTZ in the country, was established in Pudong in 2013. In 2019, Pudong's vanguard role was further exemplified as the country launched the new Lingang area of the Shanghai pilot FTZ.
By August 2022, US automaker Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory had accumulatively manufactured 1 million vehicles. As a major foreign-invested project, the factory began construction in January 2019 when the area in Lingang was still a wasteland.
So far, more than 60,000 foreign-funded enterprises have invested in Shanghai, including 857 regional headquarters of multinational corporations and 516 foreign-funded research and development centers. The actual use of foreign investment in the megacity has exceeded $300 billion, Gong Zheng, mayor of Shanghai told a press briefing in early August.
