(Yicai) Feb. 3 -- Shanghai has set its gross domestic product growth target for this year at around 5 percent, slightly lower than last year’s actual growth rate of 5.4 percent, according to the city’s latest government work report.

The target was announced today at the opening of the fourth plenary session of the 16th People’s Congress of Shanghai. Delivering the government work report, Mayor Gong Zheng said the city aims for a 2 percent increase in general public budget revenue this year, with research and development expenditure accounting for around 4.6 percent of GDP. The surveyed urban unemployment rate is expected to stay below 5 percent, while per capita disposable income growth is set to broadly match economic growth.

Shanghai’s GDP reached CNY5.67 trillion (USD815.6 billion) last year, up 5.4 percent and exceeding expectations. Foreign trade grew despite a broader downturn, with total imports and exports rising nearly 6 percent to CNY4.51 trillion, while exports climbed 11 percent.

The city remained one of the world’s most attractive destinations for foreign investment last year, with foreign direct investment totaling USD16.1 billion, equivalent to CNY114.8 billion. Several major foreign-funded projects in new energy vehicles and biomedicine were implemented at a faster pace.

Strengthening the role of domestic demand will remain the top priority this year. Shanghai will step up efforts to boost consumption, expand effective investment, and stabilize foreign investment and foreign trade.

Measures include expanding service consumption and developing the debut economy, night-time economy, live-streaming economy, and silver-haired economy. The city will also enrich digital, self-entertainment, and cruise tourism consumption, promote the professionalization, standardization, and normalization of domestic housekeeping services, and further facilitate inbound tourism, tax refunds upon departure, and cross-border payments to unlock inbound consumption potential. Authorities also plan to organize more consumption-boosting activities and increase the frequency of large-scale concerts and music festivals.

Shanghai will roll out a new round of policies to stabilize foreign trade and launch special actions to facilitate cross-border trade. It will guide foreign enterprises to invest more in advanced manufacturing, modern services, high-tech industries, and energy conservation and environmental protection, while accelerating the implementation of foreign-funded projects in finance, telecommunications, healthcare, culture, and tourism.

In technology and industry, this year’s priorities include deepening the development of Shanghai as an international economic center, supporting sectors such as intelligent connected new energy vehicles, the marine economy, the low-altitude economy, aerospace, and satellite internet, fostering distinctive digital industrial clusters, and promoting capacity expansion, quality improvement, and industrial agglomeration in the service sector.

Editor: Emmi Laine