China's State Council has approved the merger of the Shanghai Pudong New District with its neighboring Nanhui district.

The merger will see major benefits to the districts’ ports. The ports will be designed to expedite Shanghai’s bid to become a genuine international maritime centre by 2020.

Chen Qiwei, a spokesman for the municipal government said that the Pudong New District would have a land area of 1,210.41 square kilometers with 2.686 million registered residents.

Mr Chen added that the merging of the two disctricts would help accelerate Shanghai's development in shipping, business and manufacturing.

The Yangshan Deep-water Port and the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone would both come under one government entity. Also, logistics and shipping companies registered in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone are expected to have more access to land in Nanhui District.

"This will make easier for city residents to go to work in the New City and an increasing number of companies will be willing to set up offices in the district," Yang Zhouyi, Secretary-General of the Development and Reform Research Institute for Pudong said.

"We will be able to attract more high-end service providers and big shipping groups to be located in Lingang New City and this will do more benefit than raising the throughput of containers at the ports of Shanghai."

The free trade zone in Waigaoqiao is almost filled so the city government needs to speed up the development of Lingang New City.

"That is how we think the merging of Nanhui and Pudong New Area came into being.  The efforts from the government of the Pudong district alone was not enough," Mr Yang said.

The transport of cargo through inland waterways instead of highways will also be facilitated now that the two districts have merged.

Tracey Jia