Shanghai injects huge funds to modernize Nanjing Road
(XU XIAOMIN)
02/01/2002
A total of 60 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) is to be invested this year in the country's most famous commercial street, Nanjing Lu. The move is the biggest single investment for reconstruction in the street, and also signals the start of greater competition between its eastern and western sections. Nanjing Xilu will attract more foreign capital to build a hypermarket circle, and the eastern section will keep its traditional style while introducing more international brands. Some 42 billion yuan ($5.07 billion) will be invested in Nanjing Xilu. A batch of cafes, bars and restaurants will be built along the street with the aim of rivaling Xintiandi, a fashionable quarter off Huaihai Zhonglu. Some 26.8 billion yuan ($3.24 billion) has been put into operation. Of that, 95 per cent is foreign capital, according to Jing'an District Commercial Committee. Foreign capital appears to be the basis of the development on Nanjing Xilu. Along with the Malaysian-funded Kerry Centre, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's Westgate Mall, the Rong family's Citic Square, and Plaza 66 owned by real estate mogul Ronnie Chan, businessman Wang Shizhong is to invest 7 billion yuan ($845.4 million) in the street. "Nanjing Xilu is expected to be made the city's top commercial circle," said Zhu Lianqing, an economist from Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. The situation is different in the eastern section of Nanjing Road, where State capital accounts for over 70 per cent nowadays. Although the pedestrian section of Nanjing Donglu attracts 800,000 people every day, consumption per capita is only 28.75 yuan ($3.5). To increase sales in the country's No. 1 shopping street, the district government invited McKenthy to give a detailed plan for the pedestrian street last year, with the aim of making the section a world-class commercial street. The government decided to invest 18 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in the street. The whole reconstruction will be completed by 2010. An obvious change in the plan is that Nanjing Donglu, which used to insist on traditional Chinese business, is now inclined to introduce more international brands. Work has begun on a 333-metre-high skyscraper that will be Puxi's tallest building. It is also thought of as a sign of the new round of reconstruction on Nanjing Donglu. With a total investment of about 3 billion yuan ($36.3 million) from Shi Mao Group, the five-star hotel and shopping mall is expected to be complete by 2003. The reconstruction is sure to make some State-owned enterprises withdraw from the street, to be replaced by international retailers. At the moment, about 70 per cent of retailers in the section are State-owned enterprises. "It is essential for old enterprises to leave Nanjing Donglu with the development of the economy," said Xu Jianguo, director of Huangpu District. "Now, the market talks."
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