On the afternoon of March 15, LI Qqiang, Secretary of CPCs Shanghai Municipal Committee, delivered a lecture at SPI to a special seminar set to study and implement the guiding principles of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee and the core ideas of GeneralSecretary XI Jinping’s important speech made at a meeting celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pudongs development and opening-up. The seminar is also titled the 4th Special Training Class for Young and Middle-aged Officials to Thoroughly Study and Implement the Core Ideas of GeneralSecretary XI Jinping’s Important Speeches. LI Qiang pointed out that at the special point of celebrating the centenary of the CPC and embarking on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all aspects, we should fully understand the new roles and new missions assigned to Shanghai by the Party Central Committee with Comrade XI Jinping at its core, make scientific use of the new development stage, resolutely apply the new development philosophy, and serve the building of a new development pattern. Take action, shoulder responsibilities, and succeed skillfully. Create new wonders that will strike the attention of the world, and make new accomplishments in building a modern socialist country.

    GONG Zheng, Deputy Secretary of CPCs Shanghai Municipal Committee and Mayor of Shanghai, JIANG Zhuoqing, Director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Peoples Congress, and DONG Yunhu, Chairman of the CPPCC Shanghai Committee attended the seminar. YU Shaoliang, Deputy Secretary of CPCS Shanghai Municipal Committee, presided over the seminar.
    LI Qiang had an in-depth communication with everyone present， centering on studying and implementing the core ideas of GeneralSecretary XI Jinpings important speech, the decisions and deployments of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and the guiding principles of the Two Sessions. He talked about Shanghais new missions in the new era, how to fulfill the new missions, and how officials adapt to the new missions.

    LI Qiang pointed out that since the 19th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary XI Jinping had personally visited Shanghai for four consecutive years and delivered a series of important speeches, gave a series of important instructions, and assigned a series of major tasks regarding the development of Shanghai. General Secretary XI called for Shanghai to play a new role and become a modern socialist cosmopolis with global influence. He assigned Shanghai a new mission of making greater contributions to the national reform and development, pointed out a new path for Shanghai to promote high-quality economic development as a pioneer of the country, and expected Shanghai to continue to play a leading role in promoting the higher-quality integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta. He required Shanghai to create new pioneering fields of independent innovation, activate new drivers of high-quality development, develop new advantages in international cooperation and competition, serve the building of a new development pattern, and open up new prospects for the development of a people’s city. He also put forward a new expectation of Shanghai leading the way in comprehensively enforcing strict Party conduct. These important ideas have profoundly clarified a series of fundamental issues, such as the missions Shanghai has to undertake on the new journey and in the new era, what kind of city Shanghai shall be built into, and how to build it, etc. These ideas displayed a strategic outline and pointed out a general direction for Shanghais development in various aspects, such as strategic position, fundamental properties, core tasks, realization path, development drivers, and leadership support. They are indeed the scientific guidelines and fundamental principles for planning and advancing Shanghais development. We must study them thoroughly and systematically to understand the core meanings and essential principles from the whole. Be fully aware of the countrys overall interests, Shanghais new roles and missions, as well as our individual responsibilities,anchor our work at the strategic focus of Shanghais urban development, identify the acting points of our work in all aspects, and enhance the consciousness of implementation in both mind and action.

    LI Qiang said that Shanghai should make scientific grasp of the new development stage and play the roles of a pioneer, a leader, and one who makes breakthroughs to provide strong support for China to be built into a modern socialist country with great power. Be oriented to the overall interests of the country, serve the general strategies, use Shanghais stronger capacities and core competitiveness to build a top city of the world that matches with the modern socialist country of great power, and demonstrate the strong vitality and exuberant vigor of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must resolutely apply the new development philosophy, take the lead in promoting the change in quality, efficiency, and growth drivers, and open a new path of high-quality development. Let Shanghai play its role of a central city and lead the other places of the country; let it become a model city of promoting high-quailty development, creating high-quality life, and achieving high-efficiency governance; take more initiative to serve and energize the development of wider areas. Shanghais development should serve the building of a new development pattern. The city should be developed into a central point of the general domestic circulation and a strategic link between the domestic circulation and the international circulation. We should make full use of domestic circulation and the fact that domestic demand is the main economic driver of a large country and enable the domestic and international circulations reinforce each other to help China achieve high-level economic circulation. Let the Yangtze River Delta be the first region to form a new development pattern and let it be better integrated into and serve the general domestic circulation. Optimize the spatial pattern of the city and consolidate Shanghais role of a hub connecting the domestic and international markets. Improve the pattern of economic development and enhance Shanghais role of a hub of global industrial, supply and value chains. Form an urban-rural integrated development pattern and create strategic spaces for the future development of the city.

      "To make progress today, we need to advance with the times. Keep deepening the reform to obtain more driving forces, expand the opening-up to energize the market, and make innovative breakthroughs to tap more potentials. This way, Shanghai will truly form its strategic superiorities that have always been imitated but never surpassed." LI Qiang pointed out that we should transform the new missions into new vivid practices creatively, determined to emancipate the mind, deepen the reform, adopt a global vision, expand the opening-up, break conventions, and make innovative breakthroughs. We should make good play of the five "trump cards" of Shanghai, that is, the high-level reform and opening-up of Pudong, the Lingang Special Area of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, the Science and Technology Innovation Board, the integrated development of Yangtze River Delta, and the China International Import Expo.

    LI Qiangstressed that we must show greater courage and wisdom to focus on the reforms in strategies, pioneering work, basic conditions, specific targets, and optimization. Achieve deep-level breakthroughs by emancipatingthe mind comprehensively and stimulate market vitality and governance efficiency by deepening the reform so as to comprehensively enhance the driving forces, static energy and potentials of urban development. Make thorough plans for the reforms that may play a major leading role in the overall picture, mobilize the entire city to implement relevant policies, make pioneering trials, focus on critical breakthroughs, and spread local successes to the entire city. Explore new paths and set up new benchmarks independently in the areas without existing experience, and form applicable reproducible practices. Vigorously promote the reforms that play a fundamental supporting role in the citys development circumstances and require long-term effort, and promote the systematic optimization and holistic improvement of the fundamentals. Make further effort to form a powerful and effective institutional supply targeting the pressing issues, bottlenecks, and difficulties that exist in the development. For the reforms that started early and have achieved initial results but need to be deepened and optimized, continuous effort should be made to make more achievements.

    LI Qiangsaid that we should be confident and determined to promote deeper, broader, and more intensive opening-up and develop new advantages of development. Deepen all-round opening-up and enhance core functions in both domestic and international circulations. Integrate and gather resources on a larger scale, strengthen the connection between domestic and international markets, and strive to provide high-level institutional supply, high-quality product supply, and high-efficiency capital supply to better serve the overall development of the country. Focus on institutional opening-up and play a leading role in international cooperation and competition. Benchmark our rules against the higher-standard international economic and trade rules, take the lead in promoting institutional opening-up in the areas of rules, norms, management, and standards, and apply the stress testing of a higher level to make advanced explorations before the opening-up is expanded across the country.

   LI Qiang said we should proactively break the dependence only on existing paths, break through established thinking, create original ideas, and upgrade and reconstruct old resources to win the strategic initiative in future development. Be brave to discover new paths of the world and concentrate superior forces to make major innovations in fields of basic science and technology. Focus on the leading industries, such as integrated circuit, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, and increase research in critical core technologies. Learn the trends, upgrade the "racing tracks", and stand on a higher level to realize qualitative changes. Promote the digital transformation of the city in all aspects and build a new mode of urban governance with digital thinking. Open up new paths of development and activate new driving forces of the city. Accelerate the construction of "five new cities" in accordance with the requirement of being the most modern, ecological, convenient, dynamic, and distinctive. Find creative ways to realize economic increase.

    LI Qiang emphasized that the officials at all levels in Shanghai should bear in mind the original aspiration and mission of our Party, keep our faith unchanged, and learn the Party’s history to draw more strength. Improve political judgment, political insight, and political execution, develop the best abilities to shoulder the new missions given by the new era, and work hard to become experts in urban governance. Fully understand the laws of urban development, study the citys history, learn the general laws of global urban development, and understand the special laws of the urban development with Chinese characteristics. Establish right guiding principles for urban development, and implement the overall requirement of "coordinated development in five aspects" for urban governance. Know clearly the particularity of the city of Shanghai, and understand correctly the fundamental properties of a peoples city, the scale of a megacity, and the strategic missions of a central city. The core of developing a peoples city is to help the people blend into the city, meet the peoples aspirations for a better life, and facilitate the peoples all-round development. Give top priority to helping the people live a steady agreeable life and leave the best resources to the people to write a new chapter of Better City, Better Life in the new era. Make better use of the Unified Online Government Service and the Unified Management in One Network, strengthen overall coordination with systematic thinking, and improve governance efficiency with full-cycle management to ensure smoother, more efficient, and more sustainable urban operations. Identify Shanghais role as a central city, develop core functions, and accelerate its own development while serving the overall interests of the country. Improve the perspectiveness in urban governance and perceive the future development vitality, spatial structure, and growth drivers of the city. See clearly that the flow of people determines the direction of a city and the quality of talent determines the quality of a city. Its getting obvious every day that central cities and city clusters have become the main spatial forms that carry development factors and digitalization has become the core driving force of urban development. Set up a layout before the start and ensure an early success before everything is settled. Do the best to create a better future for Shanghai.

    The attendees of the meeting include some members of the Standing Committee of CPCs Shanghai Municipal Committee, such as ZHENG Gangmiao, LIU Xuexin, CHEN Yin, WU Qing, ZHOU Huilin, ZHUGE Yujie, HU Wenrong, LING Xi, and ZHU Zhisong, and some relevant officials from the Standing Committee of the Municipal Peoples Congress, the Municipal Government and the Shanghai Municipal CPPCC, as well as the President of Shanghai High Peoples Court and the Chief Prosecutor of Shanghai Peoples Procuratorate.