Shanghai seeks more investment in 8 key areas

Shanghai welcomes more investment in the eight areas of integrated circuit, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, next-generation electronic information, intelligent connected new energy vehicles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, and modern services, the municipal government said on Friday.

The information was released during the city promotion conference, which was part of the ongoing ninth China International Import Expo.

Shanghai is the city with the highest concentration of various types of venture capitals across China, with the amount invested in strategic and frontier fields overtaking all the other Chinese cities, Chen Jining, Shanghai's Party secretary, said during the Friday event.

The city is also seeing vibrant entrepreneurship, with more than 300 technology-based startups being founded every day. Over the past four years, both the number of Shanghai-based companies listed on the STAR Market at the Shanghai bourse and their total valuation have ranked first in the country.

Companies from around the world are welcome to integrate into Shanghai's innovation ecosystem and create new engines for development, Chen said.

Foreign-invested enterprises are also accelerating their development in Shanghai, Mayor Zhu Zhongming said at the same conference.

About 6,000 new foreign-invested enterprises are established in the city each year, with the total number of foreign companies exceeding 80,000. The city is now home to the regional headquarters of 1,124 multinational companies and 680 foreign-funded research centers. The city's cumulative utilized foreign direct investment has exceeded $390 billion, according to Zhu.

The city's innovation momentum is growing steadily. Last year, Shanghai employed 254,000 college graduates. Up to 1,630 national and municipal-level overseas senior professionals have been introduced. The number of high-tech enterprises in Shanghai has topped 24,000.

While the total R&D expenditure accounts for 4.55 percent of Shanghai's current GDP, this proportion will be further raised to over 5 percent by 2030. During the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, the average annual growth rate of the three major pioneering industries — IC, biomedicine, and AI — will stand above 10 percent.