On September 11, the 2025 Global Headquarters Economy Conference and China Building Economy Beijing Forum was held in Beijing, hosted by the World Trade Centers Association and China Association for the Promotion of Industrial Development. The conference was organized by the Building Economy and Headquarters Economy Branch of China Association for the Promotion of Industrial Development and Cluster Think Tank. Hong Mengjun, Vice Mayor of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, attended the forum and delivered a keynote speech.

The following is the transcript of the speech:

In this golden autumn season in Beijing, with refreshing winds and promising harvest, as a representative of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, I feel deeply honored to gather with all of you at this grand event in China's building economy sector to discuss development and explore the future together. First, I sincerely thank the organizers for providing this excellent exchange platform. This marks the fourth consecutive time that Shangcheng District has taken the stage to showcase its unique charm to colleagues in the national building economy sector and share our practices and reflections in promoting high-quality development of the building economy.

**I. Decoding Shangcheng: The Ancient Charm and Modern Renaissance with Contemporary Mission of "Most Hangzhou"**

In 2024, Hangzhou's economic output reached a new milestone of 2.18 trillion yuan, with emerging momentum accelerating and urban capabilities and core competitiveness achieving new breakthroughs. In this development landscape, Shangcheng District, as the core area of the provincial capital city, resolutely shoulders its mission and responsibility, launching a comprehensive strategic transition from Central Business District (CBD) to Central Innovation District (CID) this year. Building a solid foundation with the profound charm of "Most Hangzhou" while pioneering the future with the innovative vigor of "New Shangcheng," we are fully committed to accelerating the construction of an internationally modern demonstration area for common prosperity with unique charm.

Let me introduce Shangcheng's unique advantages from three dimensions:

First, it is a "Charming City" where historical heritage and modern civilization complement each other. Shangcheng District is the core location of the Southern Song Dynasty Imperial City ruins and an important carrier of Song Dynasty culture, Wu-Yue culture, and Qiantang River culture. Here, the 19-kilometer golden shoreline of Qiantang River flows endlessly, West Lake has been nestled among mountains for 2,000 years, and the 1,400-year-old Jiangnan Grand Canal passes through the city. This exceptional geographical location has created a unique pattern of "embracing the river, overlooking the lake, connecting waterways, and backing mountains," where history and modernity achieve the most beautiful integration, converging into the distinctive charm of a historical and cultural city.

Second, it is a "Prosperous City" where economic vitality and innovation momentum empower each other. As Hangzhou's urban core, Shangcheng District serves not only as the seat of the municipal party committee and government but also demonstrates its important status through robust economic strength. In 2024, the district's GDP reached 280.35 billion yuan, ranking third citywide. As a transportation hub core, Asia's largest high-speed rail hub Hangzhou East Station and Qianjiang New City CBD are located here, driving high concentration of logistics, capital flows, and technology flows, radiating throughout the entire East China region.

Walking through Shangcheng, one can feel both the bustling vitality of a modern metropolis and touch the strong pulse of future development. In consumption, we leverage the "three circles, three streets" consumption matrix to vigorously promote iterative upgrades of new formats, models, and scenarios, innovatively exploring "brand + supply chain" development paths, continuously strengthening the debut economy, and focusing on building the "first district for digital intelligent fashion consumption." In innovation, we prioritize cultivating new quality productive forces as our core task, focusing on three main tracks: metaverse, artificial intelligence, and humanoid robots. By leveraging advantages in technological innovation R&D, financial capital, and talent resources, we inject more new momentum into high-quality urban development.

Finally, we are a "Happy City" where public services and business environment are synergistically optimized. In medical resources, Shangcheng has 13 tertiary hospitals, ranking first in the province; our education modernization level has led the province for consecutive years, gathering prestigious Zhejiang schools like Jianlan Middle School and international schools like BASIS; in people's livelihood, we have built 113 "Happy Neighborhood Centers," achieving full community coverage, with our "15-minute public service circle" balanced accessibility index ranking first in the province; in business environment, we support enterprise development through "1+X" industrial policies and "Golden Twenty" talent new policies.

**II. Deep Cultivation of Buildings: Building "Vertical Carriers" for New Quality Productive Forces Development**

Buildings are the "vertical industrial parks" of urban economy and key carriers for cultivating new quality productive forces. For Shangcheng, they are not only the core driver for economic upgrading but also the "cover business card" showcasing urban layout and ambitions. I will share Shangcheng's experience in building development from two dimensions.

We build foundations through "high concentration," fully creating "spatial carriers" for new quality productive forces. The Shangcheng District Party Committee and government have always regarded building resources as "strategic assets," anchored to the positioning of "vertical growth poles," and continuously optimized spatial layout and resource supply. In 2024, the district achieved 75 buildings with tax revenue exceeding 100 million yuan and 8 buildings with tax revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan, successfully cultivating "10-billion-yuan avenues" and "double-hundred-million buildings." Currently, the district has completed over 280 buildings with total floor area exceeding 22 million square meters, forming building economy clusters centered on Qianjiang New City Phase I and II, Wangjiang New City, and East City New Area. Over the next three years, an additional 3.5 million square meters of space will be added, focusing on spatial carriers for technological innovation R&D and high-end services matching new quality productive forces. This has become one of Zhejiang's most resource-rich areas for buildings with the strongest industrial carrying capacity.

We strengthen the core through "industrial empowerment," building an "ecological matrix" for new quality productive forces. We break the "single office" attribute of buildings, promoting deep integration between buildings and industries, making every building a "cultivation container" for new quality productive forces. In financial empowerment, the core area of Hangzhou Qiantang River Financial Harbor leverages building clusters to gather 165 provincial-level and above licensed financial institutions, with financial industry value-added reaching 67.95 billion yuan, ranking first in the province. International Big Five banks, Big Four accounting firms' regional headquarters, and over 70% of the province's securities, insurance, and futures institutional headquarters are all located here, providing sufficient capital support for new quality productive forces development. In headquarters leadership, among Hangzhou's over 600 headquarters enterprises in 2024, 71 from Shangcheng made the list, ranking among the city's top. These headquarters enterprises use buildings as hubs, driving upstream and downstream industrial chain clustering, forming "headquarters + supporting" industrial ecosystems. In future tracks, focusing on new quality productive forces main tracks like metaverse and artificial intelligence, we deploy specialized carriers such as "China Metaverse Valley" and "Intelligent Robot Industrial Park" in key buildings, already clustering 28 metaverse enterprises, promoting precise alignment between future industries and building spaces, achieving "ecosystems within buildings, chains beyond buildings."

**III. Co-creating Brands: Yangtze River Delta C9+ Alliance Leading New Practices in Building Economy**

Currently, the building economy has entered the 3.0 era of "intensive cultivation and brand leadership." Shangcheng District focuses on transforming the building economy from "quantitative accumulation" to "qualitative leap," coordinating incremental expansion with stock revitalization, and comprehensively improving resource allocation efficiency. We actively integrate into the national strategy of Yangtze River Delta integration development, joining hands with brother districts in the Yangtze River Delta Major Cities Central Districts High-Quality Development Alliance (C9 Alliance) to co-build the "C9 Alliance Building Economy" brand, leading high-quality development of Yangtze River Delta building economy through central district collaborative development, and constructing a core metropolitan ecosystem of sharing, co-creation, and win-win outcomes.

In this process, Shangcheng District leads with standards, taking the initiative to compile and release the nation's first cross-provincial building evaluation standard "Yangtze River Delta Commercial Building Integration Evaluation System," establishing a "new benchmark" for regional collaboration. We also leverage brands to build a "new platform" for cross-regional cooperation. In 2024, Shangcheng District and Shanghai's Huangpu District jointly led the Yangtze River Delta building brand creation work, launching the "Seven Ones" brand project based on C9 Alliance brother districts. Through measures such as establishing the "C9 Alliance Building Brand Special Committee" and formulating the "C9 Alliance Building Economy Brand Construction Implementation Measures," we achieve full-process, full-cycle management of alliance building economy brands. In May this year, the "2025 Yangtze River Delta Alliance Building Economy CityWalk Series Activities Hangzhou Shangcheng Station" was successfully held, marking the second city visit activity following the 2024 Huangpu Station. Subsequent activities will continue in various alliance cities, continuously expanding the influence of the C9 building economy brand. Notably, Changzhou Xinbei District officially joined the alliance this year, achieving expansion from "C9" to "C9+," and our "circle of friends" continues to grow.

Finally, on behalf of Shangcheng District, I extend a sincere invitation: we warmly welcome all guests and industry friends to visit Shangcheng and personally experience the historical charm and development vitality of this fertile land. Let us use buildings as bridges and industries as networks to jointly paint a "beautiful blueprint" for upward development of the building economy and strive to compose a "new chapter of buildings" in Chinese-style modernization!

Thank you all!