Sci-tech bay to be hub of enterprise innovation

Shanghai's Grand Zero Bay, a new area for promoting science and technology innovation, is expected to be home for more than 600 high-tech enterprises by the end of this year, according to its construction plan.

Meanwhile, there will be more than 70 enterprises with an estimated value of more than 100 million yuan ($14.3 million) each at the bay, which is located in the city's Minhang district, according to the plan published by the municipal government on Monday.

There are two prestigious institutions of higher education — Shanghai Jiao Tong University and East China Normal University — more than 10 scientific research institutes specializing in aerospace, aviation and shipbuilding, and more than 20 State key laboratories within the 17-square-kilometer bay.

Construction of the bay is scheduled for completion in 2025. A target of at least 1,000 has been set for the number of high-tech enterprises in the fields of biomedicine, artificial intelligence and high-end equipment, and the scale of regional output value is aimed at 100 billion yuan.

"We plan to form a number of original achievements in basic research and applied basic research, create breakthroughs in a number of key core technologies in key areas of future-oriented industries, and cultivate a number of innovative and entrepreneurial individuals with interdisciplinary capabilities by that time," said Liu Duo, vice-mayor of Shanghai.

Liu said Grand Zero Bay is an upgrade and expansion of Zero Bay, on which construction started in 2015. The bay, centered around the two universities, has attracted over 3,000 enterprises specializing in science and technology.

"The upgrade is not merely a physical expansion. It is a transformation from'an innovation platform' to 'an innovation ecosystem'," said Liu.

She explained that the purpose of the new bay is to build a collaborative innovation system that integrates inputs from the government, industry, education, research, finance and service sectors, and attracts the gathering of various entities and promotes the free flow and integrated development of talent, technologies, capital and other factors.

Ding Kuiling, president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that by combining the country's major strategies and the school's academic strengths, the university has pushed forward innovation plans in the ocean, health and information fields.

"Over the past three years, the university has monetized more than 450 scientific research achievements with a total contract amount of nearly 3 billion yuan," said Ding.

"The figures were five times the amount of the previous three years, and I believe we're at the beginning of another breakthrough period," he said.

He also noted that teachers and alumni of the university have started dozens of enterprises at Grand Zero Bay, and some of them are already applying for initial public offerings on Shanghai's science and technology innovation board.

The construction plan of Grand Zero Bay points out that by 2035, the area is expected to produce a batch of globally forward-looking original achievements and form high-tech enterprise clusters with a market value in the trillions of yuan.