Shanghai: Walt Disney Co signed a contract yesterday with Shanghai Shendi Group Co to build mainland China's first Disneyland theme park in the country's richest city.
The signing is "another step forward" in Disney's goal to open its fourth theme park outside the US after being in talks with the Shanghai city government "for quite some time," the company said in an emailed statement yesterday.
Disney won government approval for a theme park last year. It still needs approval for the venture from "relevant government departments," the municipal government said in a statement on its website. State-owned Shendi will work with Disney to construct and operate the park, according to a separate government statement.
"This is a sign that restrictions on construction projects have been lifted after the Shanghai World Expo and work on the Disney park will speed up," Zhang Chifei, a Nanjing-based analyst at Huatai Securities Co, said in a phone interview.
Costs
The project may cost 25 billion yuan (Dh13.7 billion), Xinhua News Agency reported. The park, to be in Shanghai's Pudong district, will have a Magic Kingdom theme with some elements reflecting Shanghai regional flavour, Disney said last November. Disney opened a park in Hong Kong in 2005.
The park will be built inside a 20-square-kilometre area, earmarked for tourism development, said the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission.
Xinhua reported the park was expected to be 4 square kilometres in size. China's top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, approved construction on a 116-hectare site last year.
New growth
"The Disney project will probably be a new growth engine for Shanghai and benefit companies that win building contracts," Zhang of Huatai Securities said.
Shanghai Pudong Road & Bridge Construction Co. jumped by the 10 per cent limit to 19.82 yuan, Shanghai Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone Development Co gained 10 per cent to 21.66 yuan and Shanghai Construction Co. rose 8.9 per cent to 17.35 yuan.
