Shanghai to step up efforts for robust GDP and tech growth

Shanghai will step up support for new quality productive forces during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, as they are expected to serve as key engines for the city's high-quality development, the city's top officials said at a municipal news conference on Monday.

While Shanghai has set a target of 5 percent annual GDP growth over the next five years, its role as an international hub for technological innovation should be further consolidated, Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said.

Total social research and development expenditure will account for more than 5 percent of the city's GDP by 2030, he said.

To achieve these goals, Shanghai will further leverage enterprises to spearhead innovation, while improving the efficiency of transforming scientific and technological achievements into practical applications.

"Smart, green and integrated" will characterize the optimization and upgrading of the city's industrial structure, Gong said.

Shanghai will also build a pioneering zone for basic research. National-level laboratories based in the city will take the lead in advancing basic research, while mechanisms facilitating interdisciplinary coordination will be improved, he said.

Scientific data sharing and exchanges will also become more efficient so that Shanghai can better integrate into the global innovation network, Gong added.

As rapid advances in artificial intelligence are driving industrial transformation worldwide, Shanghai will seize the opportunity to build an economy powered by intelligent technologies, said Tang Wenkan, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization.

Key industries including integrated circuits, high-end equipment manufacturing and automobiles will each foster 10 benchmark enterprises, Tang said.

By the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai's factories are expected to deploy at least 100,000 humanoid robots. The penetration rate of AI agents among industrial enterprises with annual sales revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) is expected to exceed 80 percent, he added.

Shanghai also aims to cultivate a number of blockbuster applications and professional service providers in knowledge-intensive sectors such as legal and accounting services.

As AI coding becomes another major trend, local companies specializing in AI-native industrial software and AI-upgraded traditional software are expected to emerge, Tang said.

In addition, the city plans to establish closed-loop laboratories for new materials and biomedical companies, incubating up to 100 star projects.

Shanghai will better coordinate the development of open-source foundational models, commercial foundational models and sector-specific models, while promoting the sound development of high-performance AI computing chips, high-quality datasets and high-efficiency AI computing clusters, according to Tang.

These efforts will support model iteration and upgrades, as well as the large-scale application of embodied AI, he said.

Shanghai will issue 1 billion yuan in vouchers for companies to access computing power, datasets and models through pay-after-use arrangements or automatic qualification mechanisms, Tang added.

Liu Jian, director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said the city will optimize the layout of computing power infrastructure to improve the efficiency of cross-regional computing power resource allocation amid growing demand.

More than 300,000 highly skilled professionals in related fields will be introduced to Shanghai over the next five years, Liu said.

Shanghai will also increase imports of high-end equipment, core components and materials, as well as advanced technologies and equipment, to better support the development of new quality productive forces and industrial upgrading, said Shen Weihua, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn