Five aspects key to global development

While developing Shanghai into a technology innovation center with global influence, five aspects are of great importance, according to a report jointly published by a research group from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the China Engineering Technology Development Strategy Research Center in Shanghai.

The city should pay special attention to basic scientific research, research and development in advanced technology, building innovative enterprise clusters, setting up a creative resources market and forming an industrial chain that turns innovation into products.

By comparing the technological performance of Shanghai with international innovation centers such as New York, Silicon Valley, Tokyo and Singapore, the research group lists 20 key indexes for the city to work on.

In the last three decades, Shanghai's least available resource was not capital, technology, talent or land, but entrepreneurs, according to the research group.

It is suggested that the municipal government should undertake policies that provide a favorable environment for innovation.

Once the environment for creation and starting a business is formed, great entrepreneurs like Alibaba's Jack Ma will emerge naturally, says Ma Xingfa, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/29/2015 page20)