City now world's key commercial trading center as well as finance, technology hub

Shanghai has withstood challenges such as COVID-19 and global economic uncertainties while maintaining its leading position among Chinese cities. That has allowed it to showcase the economic resilience it has accumulated over decades of development, city officials said.

The city's GDP in the first nine months amounted to 3.1 trillion yuan ($426.8 billion). While that was down 1.4 percent from the same period a year ago, that figure represented an improvement of 4.3 percentage points over the year-to-year percentage change of the first six months, said Ruan Qing, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

Ma Haiqian, vice-president of the Shanghai Academy of Development and Reform, said the secret to Shanghai's speedy recovery was consistent support from the city's primary economic pillars. The better-than-expected performance in the third quarter helped retrieve ground lost in the first half.

"For years, Shanghai has built strengths in sectors such as finance, trade and industry, which quickly bailed the city out from the effects of the COVID-19 aftermath," Ma said.

Such strengths were consolidated over the past decade, with Shanghai growing as an international financial center and becoming the world's largest commercial trading hub as well as a center of industries with high-quality development, officials said.

The innovative city has also grown as a preferred place to live for people from home and abroad, they added.