Shanghai builds basic framework for global innovation center

CGTN | 05-Oct-2021

Shanghai’s efforts to become a science and technology innovation center with global influence resulted in a series of achievements, meeting preset goals during the 13th Five-Year Plan, officials told a news conference on Wednesday. By the end of 2020, the basic framework system of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center had been formed, and the core indicators had basically achieved the target, Wu Qing, the city’s vice mayor, said.

Zhangjiang Comprehensive National Science Center, the core support in building the innovation center and a strategic highland to promote the output of major original innovation achievements, made progress in accelerating the construction of national laboratories and major national sci-tech infrastructures, Wu said. The city witnessed a series of original sci-tech achievements and participated in multiple major national tasks in the science and technology field. In 2020, papers published by Shanghai scientists in world-leading academic journals, such as Nature, Science and Cell, accounted for 32 percent of China’s total. Researchers and scientists from Shanghai also facilitated national-level tasks such as the manned submersible Jiaolong, research icebreaker Xuelong, and BeiDou navigation satellites.

Breakthroughs were made in industries including integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence. Shanghai retained its position as the most attractive Chinese city favored by foreign talent for the eighth consecutive year last year, with an increasing appeal to high-level professionals. Wu said the city will strive to become an important source of new scientific discoveries, technological inventions, industrial directions and development concepts by 2025, outlining eight core indicators which include total social R&D expenditure accounting for about 4.5 percent of the city’s GDP and the number of high-tech enterprises surpassing 26,000.