Adora Magic City, the first domestic large-scale cruise ship, opened its maiden commercial voyage at Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal on New Year’s Day this year. Wei Yusheng

At the beginning of the new year, the Adora Magic City cruise ship, the first domestically-built large cruise ship, embarked on its inaugural commercial voyage. Taking the event as an opportunity, Huaxia International Cruise Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai. With Wusong International Cruise Terminal as its home port, the company will also carry out professional, market-oriented, and international businesses in cooperation with Hainan, Shenzhen and other cities. China Tourism Group, China Cosco Shipping Co., Ltd., China Merchants Group, Jin Jiang International (Holdings) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Jiushi (Group) Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Wusongkou Investment (Group) Co., Ltd. will join the supply and industrial chains of the cruise industry, to form a high-end cruise industry cluster and create a new cooperation model between central SOEs and local governments.

Shanghai Industrial Park of Robotics (SIPR), located in Gucun Town, Baoshan District, also has good news. At the Shanghai Smart Factory Construction Promotion Conference held recently, Fanuc, an SIPR enterprise, was selected into the list of members of Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Industry-Finance Cooperation Ecological Consortium as one of the first seven intelligent manufacturing supply-side units. The first batch of pilot projects are faced with heavy innovation tasks. They should not only focus on the innovation of the intelligent manufacturing industry, innovating key core technologies, and series transformation of the industrial chain and the supply chain, but also accelerate the launch of customized package products of “transformation solutions + financial solutions” with industrial characteristics for enterprises in different industries, so as to create a “Shanghai paradigm” for the industry-finance cooperation.

Currently, with the development of AI technology, plenty of major industries may observe disruptive changes. This is why we need to stay focused and alert to its latest progress in order to seize the first opportunity in restructuring industries with disruptive technology. Baoshan District has further made it clear that it will promote the six characteristic industries vigorously and comprehensively. Firstly, Baoshan will include the industries in the municipal and even its national development plan; secondly, it will optimize the work mechanism, clearly designate the responsibilities, and focus its resources and forces to accelerate the development of the industries.

In 2024, the six characteristic industries should each form an overall promotion mechanism of one key sub-industry, one department in charge, one characteristic industrial park, one operation platform, and several leading enterprises. If possible, some industries should also promote the organization of industry associations, research institutions, forums and summits, and industry funds.

The development plans for the six industries in the new year show the confidence of Baoshan. Regional development should not be limited to short-term effects or only one district. Instead, it should be targeted at key industries of the whole city, focus on advantageous industries while integrating into the municipal blueprint. For the cutting-edge fields which others lack momentum in, Baoshan District will study and analyze them one by one, further its measures and actions, and actively participate in international competition and cooperation, taking the lead and control of the industry.

Seize the strategic opportunity and create a new space with “three arrows”.

Although it has a clear focus on several industries, Baoshan’s ability to make decisions and fulfill its plans is still challenged by how to identify the target and how to drive the development in the surrounding area with well-leveraged efforts.

The leaders of commissions, bureaus, and communities brainstormed at the discussion and study meeting to study the locations on the map and find the key to development. It has been suggested that if Shanghai’s coastal passage is compared to a “bow”, then the north riverside area is an “arrow”, and Baoshan Station of High-speed Railway is on the “arrowhead”, which is a unique position as a transportation hub.

From the production shoreline to the living shoreline, Wusong Riverside Belt, located in the northern extension of “Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek”, is actively planning ecological restoration and functional improvement. Baoshan District will seize the new trends and opportunities such as the eastward movement of international cruise ship port and the upgrading of cultural tourism consumption, speed up the upgrading of riverside cruise belts and plan unique competitive cultural tourism products. Cruise economy has a long industrial chain and strong driving force, which can propel upstream and downstream related industries such as manufacturing, construction, energy, employment, transportation, and agriculture, and is of great significance for promoting the expansion of domestic demand, releasing consumption potential, cultivating development momentum, and promoting the benign interaction in the “dual circulation” of domestic and overseas markets. Next, Baoshan will stick to the “port-city linkage”, speed up the improvement of the functional matching of Shanghai International Cruise Resort, make overall plans for the cultural tourism resources along the riverside and surrounding areas, create more characteristic play scenes, further enlarge the advantages as a home port, and enhance the function as a visiting port.

Entering a new transformation stage, to maintain high-level development and improve quality and energy level also requires the local government to strive for more leading power. Previously, due to limited funds and resources, some regions relied on the independent transformation of enterprises, which solved the urgent need. However, at present, if we simply let enterprises transform independently, it will not only bring management costs far higher than temporary benefits, but also cost a higher price for the future “second transformation” or even “third transformation”.

In the new year, for the transformation and development of key areas, the relevant departments of Baoshan District will strictly implement the planning requirements and industrial orientation, grasp the development timing, and focus on promoting the purchasing and storage of the advanced development areas, so as to achieve a “short, adaptable, and fast” connection between purchasing and storage and transfer, and realize a virtuous circle. Mastering the leading power of transformation and development does not mean fighting alone, but rather being good at leveraging the situation, striving for the introduction of national and municipal resource projects, as well as powerful, capable, high-level, and advantageous SOEs, municipal SOEs, foreign-funded enterprises, and leading private enterprises to participate in regional transformation.

Targeted at “four districts”, striving to race to the top.

Focused on creating “experimental fields” and “show rooms” for the revitalization of old industrial bases, Baoshan District will better coordinate the production, daily life, and the ecology, targeting at becoming “four districts”--a beautiful district, a convenient district, a cultural district, and a safe district.

On the first work day of the new year, the officials of the CPC Baoshan District Committee went to Xingxing Village in Gucun Town to inspect the renovation project of “urban villages”. This project plot adjacent to Shanghai Industrial Park of Robotics has innovatively explored a new transformation path of “packaged development”, accelerated the difficult projects of reconstructing “small-sized” plots, and solved the difficulties such as hard-to-balance funds with scale effect.

In the “urban villages” transformation, people’s livelihood projects and economic development should be coordinated, new mechanisms and models should be explored to transform more “urban villages” into “urban sceneries” with industrial characteristics and integration of production and the city, which is the characteristic path of Baoshan District. The transformation of “urban villages” is also a vivid miniature of the construction of “four districts”. Pieces of “urban scars” with potential risks have become a convenient “urban circle” accessible within 15 minutes through regional overall planning and systematic planning, and now enjoy high-quality schools, parks, and food markets, which have enriched and improved the citizens’ life quality. This proves that the construction of the “four districts” is correlated and complements each other, which can create a strong synergy.

The construction of a beautiful district highlights the pursuit of quality. The key lies in improving the living environment with caution and care and promoting the iteration of functions in an orderly manner; Convenience is the scale of people’s livelihood. It is necessary to have a “15-minute radius community life circle” around the citizens, as well as convenient services on mobile phones and fingertips; To maintain the cultural deposits, we should carry forward red culture, Shanghai culture, Jiangnan culture, and industrial culture; Safety is the guarantee of happiness. It is necessary to enhance urban resilience, maintain social stability, and provide people working and living in Baoshan with a sense of security.

The proposal of “four districts” brings not only pressure but more momentum. As an important industrial district with a large population, Baoshan District has great pressure on resources and the environment, and it also needs to constantly innovate governance methods. The key to fine management with work done to the last detail is smaller management units and a strengthened responsibility management mechanism. Based on the preliminary plan, Baoshan District will hand over the specific implementation and law enforcement work of roads, greening, ecology, and environment within its jurisdiction to the functional departments of communities and district government departments to optimize planning, formulate standards, deploy tasks, coordinate and promote works, supervise and assess the achievements. Therefore, the corresponding funds and resources should penetrate to the communities along with the work responsibilities, so that the communities can give full play to the advantages of comprehensive coordination and overall planning of resources, so that the results can be seen, managed, and realized.

To construct the “four urban districts”, Baoshan District will exert its strength both online and offline. In its online efforts, Baoshan will accelerate the digital transformation of the urban area. Sticking to digitalization and intelligence to empower the modernization of urban governance, Baoshan will deepen and expand “Unified Administration” and “Government Online-Offline Shanghai”, introduce more application scenarios, and make good use of platforms such as community cloud and community communication, to make the functions easy to use, effective, and popular. In particular, Baoshan will improve the quality and efficiency of 12345 citizen hotline services, strictly implement the first-receptionist responsibility system, establish and improve working mechanisms such as hierarchical handling, and carefully implement the upgrading and speed-up management of key work orders and the upgrading management of “multiple people complaining about one same issue” to ensure that people’s demands are responded to and disposed of at the first time. In its offline efforts, Baoshan will improve the “15-minute radius community life circle”. Focused on the balance between work and residence and rationally distributing public resources, Baoshan will do a good job in 19 concerned projects and 10 government practical things to the letter, and solve problems involving the vital interests of the masses, such as employment, education, medical care, old-age care, child care, housing, and transportation. It will make every effort to promote the relocation of major projects such as Metro Line 19 and highway S16, promote the construction of projects under construction such as the second phase of Metro Line 18, set and optimize a number of bus lines, strengthen the resolution of parking difficulties, providing more convenient travel experience.