City
Shanghai is situated on the East China Sea coast just in the mouth
of the Yangtze River. Several rivers springing from the Taihoo Lake
cross the city. The biggest of the rivers, Huangpu is the main source
of water for municipal water-supply system.
Climate in Shanghai area is north-subtropical with sea monsoons
prevailed. Average annual indices are the following: air temperature
is + 16 ?C, rainfall amount is 1200 mm, solar period is about 2000
hours.
Shanghai
is a municipality of the People's Republic of China that has province-level
status. By administrative division it consists of ten urban districts,
Pudong New District, nine suburban districts and regions. The entire
area of the Greater Shanghai, including three islands on the Yangtze
River covers a total area of 6340 sq. km, the total registered population
is around 13.52 mln. (1.2 % growth).
Shanghai
is one of the industrial centers of great importance for PRC. Priority
lines of its development are electronic and IT branches, motor car
construction, ship building and ship repair, metallurgy, petrochemistry
and bioengineering. There are also enterprises of machine-building
(machine tool building, instrument-making, production of agricultural
machinery, power engineering equipment), aircraft, aerospace and
pharmaceutical industries, light industry (production of textiles
and electrical appliances) in Changhai.
In
2005 Shanghai became the largest port in the world by cargo turnover
(443 mln. tons of cargos).
Shanghai
is the largest trade and financial center of PRC. It has a large
range of stock, commodity and currency markets of governmental significance,
including the largest stock exchange in PRC, petroleum, grain, diamond,
gold exchanges, futures contract exchange, branches of all Chinese
banks, financial and insurance institutions, most of branches of
foreign banks established in China and representative offices of
foreign corporations.
Economics
of Shanghai demonstrated the high rates of growth in the recent
years. Last year the gross domestic product of the megapolis constituted
914.395 bln. yuans ($1= 8.06 yuans) i.e. 11.1 percent higher in
comparison with the same index of the previous year in comparable
prices.
Thus,
14 years in succession the economic growth of Shanghai is measured
by a two-figure number. In particular, the added cost of products
and services constituted 447.592 and 458.838 bln. yuans with corresponding
growth of 12.1 and 10.5 per cent.
Investments
to capital assets of Shanghai in 2004 amounted to $ 37.5 bln. (25.8
%), investments to construction and reconstruction to $ 20.9 bln.
(25.4 %), investments to housing sector to $ 14.3 bln. (30.4 %)
correspondingly.
External
trade turnover of Shanghai constituted more than 1/4 of the total
trade turnover of China in 2004 and amounted to $ 160 bln. (42.4
% growth) including $ 73.5 bln. of export (51.6 %, growth of high-tech
products constituted 76.4 % ($ 28.8 bln.); in percentage terms the
high-tech products and electrical equipment continued to grow, their
share in the total export volume of Shanghai was equal to 39.3 %
and 65.1 % correspondingly.
Volume
of direct international investments reached $ 6.54 bln. i.e. was
increased by 11.8 % in comparison with the same period of the previous
year. Last year the volume of international contract-based investments
amounted to $ 11.7 bln. (12.6 %).
Number
of projects with participation of international capital was increased
to 4334 (0.8 %). Major investors are Hong Kong, USA, Japan, Great
Britain, Singapore and Germany. In total, Shanghai attracted investments
from more than 100 countries and regions of the world. 300 out of
500 the largest transnational corporations established their branches
and offices in Shanghai and such giants as General Motors, Ford,
General Electric, National, Sharp, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Siemens
etc. are among them.
At
the end of the previous year Chinese banks as well as branches of
foreign banks in Shanghai accepted $ 243.53 bln. funds in local
and foreign currency and issued loans to the amount of $ 182.36
bln.
Average
annual income of a city-dweller constituted $ 2032 (12.2 %) and
the same of a farmer constituted $ 893 (10.2 % i.e. the highest
index beginning from 1997). Volume of social consumption (wholesale
trade for population) reached $ 29.89 bln. (10.5 %). Last year 608
th. of new work places was created. In accordance with official
data the level of city unemployment decreased up to 4.5 % for the
first time during the last 10 years.
Shanghai
and its suburbs become more and more attractive for international
tourism. In 2004, more than 4.9 mln. tourist (53.8 %) visited the
city.
A
new district Pudong is the largest and the most fast growing Development
Zone of China, in which the annual economic growth of more than
16 % level is kept during 3 years from the moment of its establishment.
Last year the volume of international contract-based investments
reached $ 3.2 bln. (12.1 %). The priority trends of attraction of
international investments are represented by science-intensive and
high-tech productions. About a half of enterprises and offices of
transnational corporations established in Shanghai are located in
Pudong. In 2004 volume of external trade of the District amounted
to $ 32.3 bln. (52.8 %) and freight turnover of the sea-port constituted
9.43 mln. standard containers (42.6 %) i.e. more than a half of
the total freight turnover of Shanghai sea-port. Major part of foreign
banks established in Shanghai operate here and the most significant
international events are held.
Export
of goods from Shanghai to Russia reached $ 344 mln. (90.06 %, basic
goods are textile, leather goods and toys).
In
Shanghai, about 50 Russian companies are established in three provinces
(Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui) and about 1000 Russian citizens reside.
