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Shanghai rolled out on Monday the development plan for the Grand neoBay Sci-Tech Innovation Park, with over 1,000 high-tech enterprises expected to be settled by 2025, striving to form a new development pattern that would complement the development of the areas along the Huangpu River by 2035, which would be comparable to the world-class science and innovation bay areas. 

The neoBay Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community, the innovative and sustainable industrial incubator and the prototype of the Grand neoBay, was launched near Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in Minhang district in 2015. 

With continuous development, the incubator has expanded to a 17-square-kilometer Grand neoBay rim with SJTU and East China Normal University centered, becoming a scientific and innovation cluster with a complete entrepreneurial service platform and ecosystem for growth and cultivation for sci-tech companies, Liu Duo, vice mayor of Shanghai Municipality, said at a press conference on Monday. 

At present, the Grand neoBay has completed 18 high-level scientific innovation platforms with the settlement of over 3,000 companies that possess the key technologies concerning the national strategic security and the improvement of comprehensive national strength, expected to drive the economic and social changes, Liu said. 

Besides, a slew of innovation centers and projects have been launched, and the open scientific and technological innovation blocks have begun to take shape. However, according to the major goal of constructing the Shanghai International Sci-tech Innovation Center, and benchmarked against the international sci-tech centers, it is still necessary to practically strengthen the function of sci-tech innovation as a source of growth, promote the transformation and application of sci-tech achievements, and foster new drivers of economic development. 

Based on early-stage full researches and argumentation as well as repeated solicitation of public opinions, the plan stresses to improve original innovation capacities with biomedicine, artificial intelligence, high-end equipment industries to be focused. 

Also, the plan emphasized to deepen the integration of industry, education, research and application to give priority to trials and implementation of policies such as promoting the commercialization of sci-tech achievements to foster incubators for technology businesses with global influence. 

The plan also proposes a series of key tasks and measures including three phased goals, five action plans, and four security measures. 

According to the plan, the sci-tech center will have more than 600 high-tech enterprises, including more than 70 enterprises with an estimated value of over 100 million yuan ($14.38 million) by the end of 2023. The gathering of high-level talents and high-tech enterprises will be accelerated, and the high-quality industrial clusters and high-quality innovation ecosystems will basically take shape, becoming new driving forces for regional economic and social development.

By 2025, the Grand neoBay will be completed with over 1,000 high-tech companies settled and a regional output value of 100 billion yuan. A number of innovative achievements in basic researches and application will be made. Breakthroughs in a number of core technologies for key industries will be made and a number of talents with interdisciplinary integration of innovation and entrepreneurship will be cultivated. 

By 2035, it is expected that the original innovation capacities will be significantly strengthened and a batch of original results with global forward-looking will be produced to form a cluster of high-tech enterprises with a market value of 1 trillion yuan. 

In order to achieve the goals, the plan also specifies five action plans containing 22 measures. The universities located in the center will be directed to open and share innovation resources and the fintech service system will be completed.

Focus will be placed on the three leading industries of biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and high-end equipment, as well as on the "new track" of future industries such as digital economy, green and low-carbon and metaverse, to foster multiple high-level industrial clusters. 

Also, periodic monitoring and assessments will be strengthened and the construction content and promotion mechanism will be reasonably optimized and adjusted based on the assessments. 

Global Times