Labels:black | darkness OCR: The Pudong New Development Zone in Shanghai In 1990, the Chinese government decided to open the Pudong New Development Zone. The objective was to turn Pudong into a new centre of finance, science, culture and information to suit the development needs of an export-oriented economy. Shanghai, the age-old industrial city, plays a decisive role in China's economic development. Once Pudong takes off, it will promote greatly the development of the entire Yangtze Delta and Yangtze River Valley and exert an incalculable impact on Shanghai's overall economic growth.