Shanghai's?service industry has become a model for the growth of the sector in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The city's service industry grew 17.1 percent to 640.8 billion yuan (US$93.8 billion) last year, equal to 52.6 percent of the city's gross domestic product.

The weight of the service industry in Shanghai, although still low compared with some cities in developed countries, had already become the highest of the Chinese mainland's urban areas, official figures show.

Shanghai, which is aiming to grow into an international hub in economy, trade, shipping and finance, had to make service-provision a pillar of the city's growth, said Chi Hong, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

The expansion of the service industry in recent years had not only created a lot of jobs, but also produced a higher yield per head for the city, according to Chi.

(Shanghai Daily November 10, 2008)