A 151-square-kilometer international opening hub will be built in Shanghai's Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD), and will be basically completed and fully operational in 2025.

In May this year, at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, a development planning outline of Hongqiao CBD was examined and approved. The plan is to build the hinge of the Hongqiao international opening hub, with the aim of improving the service to the nation's overall development level. In addition, the construction of the hub will serve the function of connecting the Yangtze River Delta region with the international business world.

By 2022, Hongqiao CBD will have gathered a batch of high-level trade entities and functional platforms to form a considerable number of modern industrial economic clusters, such as a headquarters economy, a platform economy, a digital economy and an exhibition economy.

By 2025, Hongqiao CBD will serve as an international hub for Yangtze River Delta region, and will be a major world-class international conference and exhibition destination and the best place in China for international business resource centralization.

In recent years, the international influence of the CBD has become more prominent, and this will increase as a cluster of new technologies, products and services are introduced and applied in the CBD.

The hub will be dedicated to expanding and strengthening industries such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things and green finance. By carrying out a pilot exit tax rebate policy, the commercial function of the hub will serve as the regional consumption center of global famous brands and an international consumption experience center.