Shanghai's financial district, Lujiazui in Pudong, glows at dusk on July 18, 2018. [Photo/IC]

Shanghai recently issued a three-year action plan (2019-2021) on digital trade -- amid efforts to accelerate an open and innovative system and build the city into an international hub for digital trade, local media reported on July 30.

The action plan is the first of its kind in China.

Focusing on the four key areas of cloud services, digital content, digital services, and cross-border e-commerce, the plan proposes 12 major tasks.

These involve building digital trade cross-border service clusters, supporting major projects in digital services, building promotional platforms for transactions in digital trade and advancing a global cooperation alliance of digital cities.

It is expected that by 2021, Shanghai will record a total of $40 billion in digital trade imports and exports, with a year-on-year increase of 15 percent.

Meanwhile, the metropolis will also foster five leading digital trade enterprises valued over $10 billion, attract to the city a number of digital multinational companies, nuture the startups of unicorn companies with international competitiveness and strong development potential, as well as 500 digital trading companies above a designated size.