Timeline of Shenzhen’s 30-year development as a special economic zone

●2001: “Regulations on Land Transactions in Shenzhen” promulgated

The “Regulations on Land Transactions in Shenzhen,” the first local regulations on land transactions in Chinese mainland, was promulgated in 2001.

●2002: Large state-owned enterprises in Shenzhen reformed international bidding system

Shenzhen introduced a series of reform policies in 2002 to encourage large state-owned enterprises to sell a certain percentage of their stakes to domestic or foreign strategic investors through international bidding, which was a major breakthrough in diversifying the ownership of state-owned enterprises.

●2003: Hu Jintao visited Shenzhen

Chinese President Hu Jintao inspected Shenzhen in 2003, and demanded that the city should “develop more rapidly but also coordinately, while taking the lead in China’s economic development.”

●2004: Shenzhen subway officially put into operation

The Shenzhen subway system was officially launched in 2004, a prelude to the construction of the urban rail transit system.

●2005: Shenzhen included in China’s first list of national model cities

Shenzhen was listed in 2005 as one of the first batches of national model cities in China, indicating that the city reached a new level in the development of urban civilization.

●2006: Shenzhen developed the “going global” strategy

The “Outline of Shenzhen’s Going Global Strategy” was unveiled in 2006, the first time that the city took “going global” as a key development strategy.

●2007: Shenzhen won the bid to host the 26th Summer Universiade

In 2007, Shenzhen succeeded in the bid to host the 26th Summer Universiade in 2011, and became the youngest city to hold the Universiade.

●2008: Shenzhen set new objectives for its development

The “Pearl River Delta Region Reform and Development Program” published by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2008 demanded Shenzhen to be a comprehensive reform pilot district, a national economic center, a national innovation city, an international city, and a city that can demonstrate the socialism with Chinese characteristics.

●2009: Shenzhen’s GEM board ChiNext launched

The ChiNext, the GEM board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, was launched in 2009, which further improved China’s multi-level capital market.

●2010: The economic zone expanded to include the whole city

The State Council approved the plan of expanding the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone to the entire city of Shenzhen in 2010, and thus the area of the economic zone increased from 327.5 square kilometers to 1,952.8 square kilometers.