Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone based in Pudong, Shanghai's vibrant central business district (CBD), is rapidly building itself into a true global business district, but requires more support.

"The conglomeration effect of Lujiazui has taken effect as more and more financial institutions are attracted here," said a source from the newly-established Pudong Finance Office.

According to data provided by the office, by the end of September, 161 financial institutions, 87 domestic and 74 foreign, had settled in Lujiazui.

The number and assets value of foreign banks settled in Lujiazui account for 30 per cent and 56 per cent respectively of the total foreign banks with presence in China.

At present, the city has 23 fund companies, 19 of which have based their offices in Lujiazui.

In 2003, the gross domestic product value in Lujiazui reached 14.7 billion yuan (US$1.78 billion) per square kilometre according to data provided by the office.

As planned, Lujiazui will offer 4 million square metres of office area, including both the 337,000-square metre World Finance Centre to be completed in 2007, and the 220,000-square metre Sun Hung Kai Project to be completed by 2008.

Shanghai's present use of space by international financial corporations is around 160,000 square metres while that in Hong Kong's financial district is 1,000,000 square metres, and over 20 million square metres on Wall Street in the United States.

"An aggressive level of expansion in China by foreign financial institutions, resulting from the opening of the financial sector subsequent to the end of the Chinese Government's Tenth-five Year Plan, will create more need for space," said Remy Chan, Head of Commercial Business for Jones Lang LaSalle Shanghai, a leading global real estate firm.

"We are sure there will be a soaring demand for offices as multinationals keep swarming into the area," he said.

In 2004, the agency secured over 20,000 square metres of office space in Lujiazui for a number of leading corporations.

Compared with Nanjing Road or Huaihai Road, the so-called CBD areas in the old part of Shanghai, Chan said Lujiazui is of bigger potential to become successful as it develops as a district while the others develop as merely a street.

Despite the overwhelming optimism about the future of Pudong's commercial market, there are still some drawbacks that should not be overlooked.

Chan pointed out that the river-crossing transportation infrastructure and relative isolation of the office buildings in Lujiazui are both bottlenecks to be broken.

"Other particular concerns are commercial facilities as well as overall environment," Chan said.

He suggests that the creation of a more integrated infrastructure may help address the above concerns, which the government of Pudong New Area should take into careful consideration.

Chan was echoed by many officials and scholars at the recently held China Shanghai E-CBD Forum.

(China Daily)

conglomeration: The act or process of gathering into a mass; the state of being thus collected; collection; accumulation.（聚集，凝聚）

drawback : the quality of being a hindrance（缺點，障礙）