BORROW FROM EXPERIENCES OF OTHER COUNTRIES AND SPEED UP DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXTERNALLY ORIENTED ECONOMY1
OCTOBER 9, 1989
The past 10 years have brought reform and opening up in China, and they have also seen Shanghai gradually move toward the world. Much thought is now directed at making further use of Shanghai’s strengths, potential, and vitality so it can become an economic, trade, sci-tech, financial, and information center in the Western Pacific, and an international metropolis. Our development will rely primarily on our own abilities, and on the help of our friends. Particularly in this era of rapidly developing sci-tech, we need to constantly absorb advanced sci-tech and management experiences from other countries. Only then will Shanghai be able to play a greater role in China’s development.
To this end, two years ago we started thinking about establishing an international advisory body that would provide suggestions for Shanghai’s opening up, and this idea received the support of the State Council. After more than a year of preparation, we are finally convening the preparatory meeting of the International Business Leaders Advisory Council to the Mayor of Shanghai (IBLAC).2 As members of this council, your actions not only reflect your friendship with the Chinese people and with the people of Shanghai, but they also demonstrate your farsightedness. You foresee the impact Shanghai’s opening up and development will have on the economic future of the Asia-Pacific region and on the entire world.
Attending the second meeting of the International Business Leaders Advisory Committee to the Mayor of Shanghai (IBLAC), March 16, 1990. Far left, municipal government adviser Wang Daohan; far right, Huang Ju, vice mayor and deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; second from the right, Maurice Greenberg, IBLAC chair and chair and CEO of the American International Group.
An important task before us is one Jiang Zemin entrusted to us when he visited Shanghai this August: Shanghai must further open up. He felt that the conditions in Shanghai are ripe for such a move. How should it be tackled? I think we should focus on two efforts.
First, we should take care to do a good job with existing foreign enterprises. Although Shanghai’s investment environment has shown definite improvement, it still needs to go further in this direction. Foreign entrepreneurs still have a considerable number of complaints, and a lot remains to be done in this area. We’re willing to listen to any of your views and to continuously do better in our work.
Second, we must speed up the development of Pudong. This will be the focus of Shanghai’s further opening up, and we are taking steps to pick up the pace. To develop Pudong, we must first solve the problem of crossing the river. We already have two tunnels—the Dapu Road tunnel and the Yanan Road East tunnel—and work has already started on the Nanpu Bridge, a major bridge project between the two tunnels. This can be completed by 1991.
We will also build a new Port of Shanghai at Waigaoqiao, located in Pudong at the mouth of the Yangtze River. We expect to start work on it in 1991. At the same time, roads are being built in Pudong—for example, Pudong Road South has already been completed. Pudong has an area of about 350 square kilometers, which is larger than the old urban center in Puxi, now a hopelessly crowded part of the city. Thus if Shanghai is to develop, we must go to Pudong. If Pudong can just [gradually] build up its infrastructure and public facilities, it can become the most attractive place for foreign entrepreneurs to invest. As we develop Pudong, we will prepare to adopt even more preferential policies to attract foreign investment. We welcome foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Pudong, and we also encourage the present industries and residents of the urban area to move to Pudong. I hope that our friends will put forth many valuable ideas about this strategic question concerning Shanghai’s future growth, so that we may speed up Pudong’s development and Shanghai’s further opening up.
1. These are the key points of Zhu Rongji’s speech at the preparatory meeting (later renamed the first meeting) of the International Business Leaders Advisory Council to the Mayor of Shanghai (IBLAC). At the suggestion of Jing Shuping, who was then the executive director of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) and chairman of China International Economic Consultants, Zhu Rongji invited a group of internationally renowned entrepreneurs to serve as advisers to the mayor. The purpose was to further implement the program of reform and opening up, to absorb useful experiences from other countries, and to speed up development of an externally oriented economy in Shanghai. After preparations by the Shanghai Foreign Investment Commission and the managing partner for the Asia-Pacific region of the Arthur Andersen Company, the preparatory meeting for IBLAC was held at the Xijiao Guest House in Shanghai on October 9, 1989. At this meeting, the IBLAC bylaws were adopted and Maurice Greenberg, chairman and CEO of the American International Group, was elected the first chairman of IBLAC. It was also agreed that one IBLAC meeting would be held each year.
2. At its founding, IBLAC consisted of 12 members from 7 countries. By its 23rd meeting in 2012, it had 50 members from 16 countries.