Although Shanghai still enjoys advantages compared with its neighboring cities, it is less competitive than other global metropolises, he added.

"Those issues mean we have to consider looking at the Four Centers plan."

He said science and education are especially crucial in raising any city's competitiveness.

"Any country without a world-class science and education center can never become a world economic center," he noted.

He pointed out that after World War II, the US, for example, gathered the world's best scientists and set up the Stanford University-Silicon Valley model, which was aimed at commercializing top research.

The practice immediately transformed the US into the world's leading science and education market, and secured its dominance of high-end scientific research.

Shen added that universities and laboratories are still birthplaces of frontier science and technology.

And for Shanghai to not only compete, but take a lead, it has to pay attention to building itself into not only a world economic center, but also one that plays host to a world-class science and education community.

The Four Centers blueprint also means remaining an international manufacturing and financial center, and expanding the city's historic role as a key shipping, transport and trade hub home to some of the world's top transport businesses.

The Shanghai International Port (Group) Co Ltd, for instance, became the world's busiest container port by processing 31.74 million 20-foot equivalent units, or containers, in 2011.

But Shen's plan doesn't come cheap.

To build culture, science and education, medical research and treatment centers, and possibly other facilities for the development of the city's creative industry, could require up to 1 trillion yuan in investment for each sector.

But he added, the massive spending will generate huge business opportunities, jack up domestic demand, spur the regional economy, and greatly improve the city's attraction as a tourism destination.

Shen said it was possible to build an internationally acclaimed science and education center, for example, within one to two decades.

He highlighted that Tsinghua University, founded in 1911, won international fame in about 10 years.

The National Southwestern Associated University, established in 1938 but disintegrated in 1946, became one of the most prestigious universities in China's history in only eight years, with a handful of leading scientists including Nobel Prize winner of Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang being educated there.

The key to building the Four New Centers is reform, opening-up, and innovation, he stressed. "We need to further open our doors to the world's best education organizations, medical treatment centers, and entertainment companies."

xutaotao@chinadaily.com.cn