2026 marks the beginning of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan period. The Information Office of Shanghai Municipality has launched a series of press briefings focused on the city’s 15th Five-Year Plan, to release and interpret key policy documents. The first briefing was held on February 11. Wu Wei, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and executive vice mayor, introduced the details of the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for Shanghai’s National Economic and Social Development. Gu Jun, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Government and director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission; Zhou Xiaoquan, executive deputy director of the Financial Commission Office of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee; Luo Dajin, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology; Wang Zhen, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development; and Lu Taohong, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health, attended the briefing and answered questions from reporters.The 15th Five-Year Plan period will be critical for Shanghai as it seeks to seize new opportunities, accelerate reform and drive industrial transformation and upgrading. The Fourth Session of the 16th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress recently adopted the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for Shanghai’s National Economic and Social Development. The document implements the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and subsequent plenary sessions, as well as the spirits of President Xi Jinping’s important speeches during his inspection tours of Shanghai and his key instructions for the city’s work. It aligns with the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the corresponding requirements by the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee. The outline sets out Shanghai’s development targets and major tasks for the 2026-2030 period, serving as a blueprint for the city’s development over the next five years and a roadmap for coordinated action among all citizens.I. About the main structure of the Outline The document is divided into three parts. The first part, comprising Chapters 1 and 2, provides an overview. It reviews Shanghai’s achievements during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and sets out the development direction, guiding principles and overall targets for the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The second part, spanning Chapters 3 to 15, focuses on key tasks and policy measures. Covering 13 areas, it lays out major priorities and concrete initiatives for Shanghai’s economic and social development across various sectors over the next five years. The third part, Chapter 16, addresses implementation safeguards. In line with the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Development Planning, it strengthens legal and institutional guarantees throughout the implementation process to ensure that the blueprint is effectively carried out and translated into tangible development outcomes.II. About the main goals and indicators of the 15th Five-Year PlanGuiding Principles. They emphasize Shanghai’s distinct characteristics and can be summarized as “Four Principles, Two Driving Forces and One Guarantee.” The “Four Principles” are: leading development through scientific and technological innovation; strengthening momentum through reform and opening up; aligning with major national strategies; and underpinning progress with the modernization of urban governance. These requirements were put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection of Shanghai in late 2023 and serve as the methodological framework for the city’s development. The “Two Driving Forces and One Guarantee” refer to promoting effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of the economy; making steady progress toward common prosperity and the all-round development of people; and ensuring decisive advances in building Shanghai into a modern, socialist and international metropolis with global influence. Together, they define the key objectives and phased priorities for the 15th Five-Year Plan period.Development Goals for Two Key Milestones. The plan sets development targets for two key milestones: 2030 and 2035. By 2030, Shanghai aims to significantly strengthen the core functions of its “Five Centers,” with marked improvements in global resource allocation, technological innovation, high-end industrial leadership, openness as an international hub, and cultural soft power. Decisive progress is expected in reforms across key sectors and critical areas, alongside further breakthroughs in high-level institutional opening-up. The city also seeks to become the best practice site for the “people-centered city” philosophy, steadily enhancing quality of life and further elevating its global standing as a modern, socialist and international metropolis with global influence. By 2035, the functions of the “Five Centers” are expected to be fully upgraded, with major development indicators reaching internationally advanced levels. The city’s overall strength and core competitiveness will be substantially enhanced, per capita GDP will double from its 2020 level, and Shanghai will be basically built into a modern, socialist and international metropolis with global influence.Key Indicators. The Outline sets out 20 key indicators, including 14 expected targets and six binding targets. These indicators were designed based on three main considerations. First, their guiding role. In line with the principle of being “streamlined but effective,” the plan selects representative and forward-looking indicators to steer economic and social development while underscoring Shanghai’s sense of mission and responsibility. Second, innovation. The indicators focus on the most pressing priorities of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. They are calibrated to reflect new circumstances, while maintaining continuity with the 14th Five-Year Plan, ensuring alignment with the next stage of development. Third, relevance and precision. The targets are tailored to local conditions, highlighting Shanghai’s distinctive features and responding more directly to public expectations. Specifically, to promote both qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth, indicators cover economic expansion, efficiency gains and structural optimization. To advance the “Five Centers” initiative, targets address finance, trade, shipping and sci-tech innovation. In response to public concerns, the plan includes indicators on employment, income, housing and elderly care. For green development, it sets targets on low-carbon transformation and resilient, secure governance. In addition, the Outline defines work objectives in more than 40 specific areas to guide implementation across sectors.Ⅲ. About 13 major initiatives during the 15th Five-Year Plan periodThese initiatives can be summarized as advancing “three new dimensions”: new driving forces, new development space and new quality growth.First, new driving forces. The core priority is to strengthen Shanghai’s core functions by deepening the development of the “Five Centers.” As an international economic center, Shanghai will enhance its global standing by building a “2+3+6+6” modern industrial system. The “2” refers to the digital and green upgrading of traditional industries; the “3” to the accelerated development of three leading industries; the first “6” to six emerging pillar industry clusters; and the second “6” to the forward-looking layout of six future-oriented industries. The city will also energize the services sector, promote the clustering of industries and production factors, expand domestic demand, foster world-class enterprises and enhance its role in global economic governance. As an international financial center, Shanghai will improve competitiveness and internationalization, steadily expand high-level financial opening-up, accelerate the development of a global RMB asset allocation and risk management hub, strengthen its market, institutional, product/service and infrastructure systems, and enhance financial support for the real economy. As an international trade center, the city will reinforce its hub function, consolidate its position in global trade networks, attract and foster global supply chain management centers, strengthen commodity resource allocation capabilities and promote transformation and innovation in trade structure. As an international shipping center, Shanghai will upgrade resource allocation capacity, strengthen its role as a sea and air hub, advance the development of world-class port and airport clusters in the Yangtze River Delta, enhance the full shipping service chain and accelerate digital, smart and green transformation. As an international science and technology innovation center, the focus will be on boosting original innovation, achieving breakthroughs in key core technologies, deepening the integration of technological and industrial innovation, promoting coordinated development of education, technology and talent, and optimizing the spatial layout of innovation functions for the sci-tech center. At the same time, as a national pioneer of reform and opening up, Shanghai will comprehensively deepen high-level reform and opening-up during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Leveraging national strategic platforms including Pudong, Lin-gang, Hongqiao and the Eastern Hub, the city will advance the development of a higher-level open economy, further improve the business environment, deepen reforms of the socialist market economy system and stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship across market entities.Second, new development space. This dimension operates at two levels: the Yangtze River Delta region and the Shanghai municipality itself. At the regional level, Shanghai will advance the national strategy for integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, with a dedicated chapter in the plan addressing this priority. Efforts will focus on coordinated technological and industrial innovation, alignment among leading entities, complementary advantages across provinces, infrastructure connectivity, institutional coordination, and the integration of ecological protection with economic development. Priority will be given to intensive development in key areas, stronger institutional support, and coordinated growth across major sub-regions in a bid to accelerate the development of the Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) Science and Technology Innovation Center, advance the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor and the Shanghai-Nanjing Industrial Innovation Belt. Shanghai, together with Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, will continue to strengthen the Yangtze River Delta’s role as a key engine of high-quality development and support the region in taking the lead in advancing Chinese modernization.At the municipal level, Shanghai will optimize the spatial layout of urban and rural functions and accelerate the development of a modern infrastructure system. It will refine the spatial framework of “central area leadership, coordinated development of two wings, strengthened new towns, and north-south transformation.” The city will enhance the radiating role of the central urban area, promote integrated development and quality upgrades along the “one river, one creek, one belt,” strengthen the comprehensive node functions of new towns, and cultivate new growth drivers in the “one island, one lake” and other strategic areas along the river, around the lake and along the coast. Shanghai will also advance rural revitalization and high-quality urban renewal. Forward-looking plans will be made for new infrastructure, including computing power, communications networks and low-altitude airspace. The city will further improve its modern integrated transport system, accelerate the transition to a new energy system, and enhance water security capacity.Third, new quality growth. Focusing on culture, public well-being, ecology and governance, Shanghai will fully embrace the philosophy of a “people-centered” city, improving livelihoods through development and striving to deliver a higher-quality life for residents. Specifically, the city will continue to stimulate cultural innovation and creativity, build itself into a world-renowned tourism destination and an internationally recognized sports city, and promote the integrated development of culture, tourism, commerce, sports and exhibitions. Efforts will be made to enhance urban vitality and expand more inclusive and higher-quality public services in areas such as employment, housing, education, healthcare, elderly care and childcare. Shanghai will also accelerate the development of an ecologically livable city, ensure carbon emissions peak before 2030, and expand high-quality green spaces. At the same time, it will steadily advance the modernization of governance in this megacity and comprehensively strengthen the development of a resilient and secure city.IV. About measures to guarantee effective implementationThe vitality of any plan lies in its execution. The Outline makes clear that priority must be given to strengthening task allocation, inter-plan coordination, resource alignment, policy support, as well as monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, to ensure that all objectives and targets are effectively delivered.With the blueprint now in place, the focus turns to implementation. Over the next five years, Shanghai will press ahead along the direction and goals set out in the plan, mobilizing the full strength of the city to translate the blueprint into tangible development outcomes.