Qiantan business hub coming soon

With skyscrapers destined to be as equally impressive as those in the financial hub of Lujiazui to usher in regional headquarters which can support the local financial industry, Shanghai's "second Lujiazui" or Qiantan is slated for completion in as early as three years, the project's developer said Wedneday.

The 2.83-square-meter central business district next to Shanghai Oriental Sports Center - constructed last year in southern Pudong New Area to serve the 14th FINA World Championships - has been designed for the purpose of backing the city's Lujiazui area, with multinational offices for mainly accounting, consulting and legal service companies.

The developer, Shanghai Lujiazui (Group) Company - one of the city's largest State-owned companies and the developer behind Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, the country's first financial district built in 1990 - said Wedneday that companies would be able to move into the area in the next three to five years.

Already, 95 percent of the project's resettlement and demolition work has been completed, said a press officer for the developer, who preferred to be identified as Zhou.

"The development plan has been approved by the municipal government," she told the Global Times Wedneday. "We're now waiting for the city's urban planning and land resources bureau to finish reviewing it, which will likely happen in the second half of the year."

Zhou said that once the final details have been settled, the developer will plunge ahead with construction for the project that officials have promised will "push forward regional economic development."

A 10-minute drive by highway to People's Square downtown, Qiantan is set to receive some 10 billion yuan ($1.59 billion) in investments during the course of its first five years of development, while another 90 billion yuan will be driven into the area for long-term support of the 'Lujiazui mothership,' Yang Xiaoming, the developer's general manager, earlier told local media.

"When we developed Lujiazui 20 years ago, we had little experience and capital, so we had to do it step by step, which is why it took so long to complete a comprehensive development for the entire area," said Yang. "This time, we want to do more from the get-go, better."

That vision includes an ambitious 4 million square meters of construction, of which 50 percent will be devoted to offices and commercial buildings; 40 percent for high-end residential communities; and 10 percent for public facilities. The 'green' coverage rate will be 30 percent and spread out over the entire area.

Alongside Disneyland and Lingang New City, Qiantan is among the city's major developments planned for the next five years.