This afternoon (January 4), Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining visited Zhangjiang in Pudong to review technological innovation and industrial development, focusing on a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan and the year ahead, and listened carefully to companies' views and suggestions. Chen stated that Shanghai must thoroughly study and implement the guiding principles of the fourth plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches during his visits to Shanghai. It must strengthen its sense of responsibility, mission, and urgency in shouldering national responsibilities and acting as a pioneer, pursue development led by technological innovation and driven by reform and opening-up, and make the continued creation of a world-class business environment a key priority. These efforts should further energize high-quality development, contribute more to Shanghai's development as the “Five Centers” and its modernization, and ensure a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.
- Stay aligned with the area's overall positioning and industrial direction, further strengthen its role as a source of technological innovation, accelerate spatial planning improvements, allocate innovation resources efficiently, integrate technological and industrial innovation more deeply, attract and develop world-class companies, and build world-class industry clusters to better serve national strategies
As a core area supporting Shanghai's development as an international science and technology innovation center, Zhangjiang Science City is implementing five major initiatives under the action plan to refocus on Zhangjiang and accelerate the development of a world-class science city: optimizing its innovation layout, developing strategic scientific and technological capabilities, cultivating leading companies, attracting and nurturing innovation talent, and strengthening its innovation ecosystem. Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town, located in the core area, is now home to nearly 500 AI companies. Chen visited the Moli Community, which helps growth-stage companies accelerate their development, and viewed the latest product demonstrations from Guangbenwei Technology, JDO, Yanshan Technology, and other companies. He spoke with company leaders about R&D, technological breakthroughs, and practical applications in photonic computing chips, intelligent cockpit systems, brain-inspired intelligence, and brain-computer interfaces. He asked about companies' next development plans and their needs for policy and service support, expressing the hope that high-tech companies would align their development more closely with the city's industrial positioning and direction, focus on their core businesses, tackle key challenges, attract talent, and continually strengthen their core competitiveness to achieve mutually beneficial collaboration through shared priorities.
(Pictured: a demonstration of JDO's latest products)
Chen stated that Shanghai's recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan, adopted at the eighth plenary session of the 12th CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, set out measures to accelerate the development of an international science and technology innovation center. As the main arena for these efforts, Zhangjiang should stay aligned with its overall positioning and industrial direction, further strengthen its role as a source of technological innovation, accelerate improvements to spatial planning, allocate innovation resources efficiently, integrate technological and industrial innovation more deeply, attract and develop world-class companies, and build world-class industry clusters to better serve national strategies. AI Innovation Town should pursue ambitious planning, high-standard construction, and high-quality operation, focusing on its leading industries and specialized segments while continually improving its innovation and industrial ecosystems. It should develop a group of high-capacity proof-of-concept platforms, pilot-scale testing platforms, and high-quality incubators, provide targeted entrepreneurial guidance for commercializing R&D results, and offer resource and service support for startups. Financing services for small and medium-sized companies should be improved to encourage private capital to invest early, in small businesses, for the long term, and in core technologies, providing strong and effective support for high-growth companies, particularly gazelles and unicorns.
- Understand the trends of the new technological revolution and industrial transformation, deepen research into their patterns and underlying logic, use digital capabilities to address common needs across companies and industries, innovate institutional measures, improve regulatory systems, and make policies and services more targeted, accessible, and effective
Chen stated that Shanghai should combine high-quality development with deeper, high-standard reform and opening-up, making better use of key areas as testing grounds for reform and opening-up. It should understand the trends of the new technological revolution and industrial transformation, deepen research into their patterns and underlying logic, use digital capabilities to address common needs across companies and industries, innovate institutional measures, improve regulatory systems, and make policies and services more targeted, accessible, and effective. Relevant departments and districts should coordinate efficiently as they implement version 9.0 of the plan to improve the business environment, enhance services for companies, resolve problems promptly, and support companies in innovating, developing, and growing stronger in Shanghai.
Municipal leaders Li Zheng, Hua Yuan, and Chen Jie joined the visit.