Projects to accelerate the social and economic development of Qingpu New City over the next five years were unveiled on Wednesday. The 10 projects, with a total investment of 500 billion yuan (US$76 billion), cover a wide range of areas such as public service, infrastructure, the environment and industry development. The 91-square-kilometer new city aims to have 550,000 permanent residents by 2025, and 650,000 by 2035. A 41-billion-yuan transport hub and the Yangtze River Delta Art Center will be built in the new city, the Qingpu District government said. The art center will have two theaters with a total of 1,700 seats and an 800-seat music hall. Performances including opera, dance and dram will be staged, the government said. A 1-square-kilometer central park will be created with sports facilities. The ecology of rivers will also be restored during the next five years. The first and second phases of a water park project circling the district have completed with the third phase under construction. A medical research complex merging rehabilitation medicine research, biomedicine research, clinical research and education training will be built with the cooperation of Fudan University. The excellent and good water quality rates in the new city will be above 90 percent by the end of 2025. A school driven by 5G technologies and targeting innovative professionals, and the Qingpu branch of Zhongshan Hospital with 1,200 beds are also on the agenda. A central business district covering 6.5 square kilometers will be built in the new city along with a digital economy belt along the G50 Expressway. "The new city will be developed into a gateway of Shanghai, a center in the Yangtze River Delta Ecology and Greenery Integration Demonstration Zone, and a hub of the delta region with regional competitiveness, global appeal, vitality, and a blend of ancient Jiangnan flavor and modern civilization," said Zhao Huiqin, Qingpu’s Party secretary. Based on industrial parks such as Shixi Software Information Park and Beidou West Hongqiao Base, the new city will step up development of digital industries such as electronic information manufacturing, software and information services, artificial intelligence, industry of Internet, and cybersecurity, and beef up the application of big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things. A digital economy highland will be created in the new city, said Zhao. Shanghai unveiled its plan to develop five new cities in Jiading, Qingpu, Songjiang, Fengxian and Nanhui in late January as part of the city government’s effort to seek new engines for future economic and social growth. Under an earlier blueprint, the five differently positioned new cities will be developed into modern, ecologically friendly, convenient and vibrant places where urban life and industrial development are well integrated. By 2025, they are supposed to attract a total of 3.6 million permanent residents and will further expand to around 1 million each by 2035.