New innovation valley bolsters Yangtze River Delta's high-tech prestige

A regional innovation valley linking Shanghai with eight neighboring cities is emerging as one of China's main engines for strategic technologies, using cross-provincial coordination to accelerate industries from satellite internet to commercial space and 6G communications.

The G60 Science and Technology Innovation Valley of Yangtze River Delta, spanning nine cities across Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, has evolved from a local cooperation initiative into a national strategy aimed at integrating research, manufacturing, finance and commercialization across one of China's most economically dynamic regions.

As China is building the Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) International Science and Technology Innovation Center into a world-class innovation hub, the G60 valley has become a testing ground for breaking down administrative barriers that have traditionally hampered regional innovation.

"The original idea was simple — no single city could build an entire industrial chain on its own, so the nine cities began coordinating their respective strengths. That naturally created the basis for collaboration. Different cities contribute different advantages, from research and talent to manufacturing capacity and financial services, forming an integrated industrial ecosystem," said Xu Shidong, head of the industrial group at the G60 Joint Office.

The valley covers Shanghai's Songjiang district and eight neighboring cities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui. Together they generate about one-fifteenth of China's GDP with only one-twenty-eighth of its population, while accounting for roughly one-fifth of companies listed on Shanghai's STAR Market and about 12 percent of China's unicorns, according to the G60 Joint Office.

Satellite internet service has become one of the valley's showcase sectors, as China accelerates the deployment of low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations.

Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co, the builder and operator of the Spacesail Constellation — a massive low-Earth-orbit commercial satellite network — has emerged as the anchor company of the regional satellite ecosystem.

Xu Yunxiang, vice-president of Spacesail, said: "The constellation creates demand across the entire industry chain, including satellite manufacturing, payloads, ground terminals, testing equipment and application services."

The company has launched 238 satellites and aims to have 324 in orbit by the end of 2026, laying the groundwork for initial commercial broadband services in global markets, particularly countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

In June, the company completed one of China's first successful direct-to-cell tests, enabling 5G voice and video calls using an unmodified commercial smartphone connected directly to a satellite, a milestone it says demonstrates the potential convergence of terrestrial and satellite communications.

Xu Yunxiang said the G60 ecosystem allows companies to collaborate across research, manufacturing, launch services and operations within a unified regional network. As the lead company in the industry chain, Spacesail sets technical standards and quality management systems that help suppliers develop together.

Meanwhile, Xu Shidong said the concentration of suppliers across the Yangtze River Delta region gives the region's commercial space sector an advantage.

"Shanghai offers talent and financial resources, while suppliers across neighboring G60 cities such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huzhou and Hefei complete the industry chain. Commercial space ultimately has to compete on cost. Previously, the priority was proving the technology worked. Commercialization requires making it affordable," he added.

As satellite internet and 6G technologies advance, executives say testing equipment is becoming one of the industry's most important enabling technologies.

Transcom Instruments Co, a communications testing equipment maker among the first companies listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange, has become a major supplier of testing systems for China's satellite internet programs.

"Testing equipment is effectively the ruler for the entire communications industry," said Feng Yuejun, chairman of Transcom. "If the measurement standard is inaccurate, every downstream product — chips, terminals, satellites and networks — will struggle to interoperate."

For more than a decade, the company has worked with Southeast University in neighboring Jiangsu province to develop communications testing technologies, turning academic research into commercial products used in China's wireless and satellite industries, Feng said.

He said the G60 valley has made such cross-regional collaboration easier by combining Shanghai's research strengths with manufacturing resources across the Yangtze River Delta region, adding: "High-end R&D can remain in Shanghai, while production and industrialization can be distributed across the broader Yangtze River Delta."

The valley's industrial ecosystem is also expanding beyond satellite manufacturing into space-based computing.

Comospace Co, incubated by the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is developing onboard computing systems that enable satellites to process artificial intelligence workloads in orbit instead of transmitting raw data back to Earth.

Liu Yaoqi, CEO of Comospace, said future satellite constellations would increasingly rely on onboard computing assets to process growing volumes of Earth observation and communications data.

Beyond industrial development, the G60 valley has also become a policy laboratory for regional institutional integration.

Xu Shidong said governments have begun allowing cross-regional innovation consortiums to qualify jointly for public R&D funding instead of restricting subsidies to companies registered in a single jurisdiction.

Shanghai and eight other cities have jointly established a regional technology commercialization fund, allowing capital to follow projects rather than administrative boundaries, while companies can retain operations where they are best suited.

The valley has also introduced specialized lending products for tech firms and coordinated with the Shanghai Stock Exchange to expand financing channels for high-growth enterprises.

Rather than requiring companies to relocate, the model allows firms to keep their headquarters and core operations where they are while expanding other functions across the region, with participating cities sharing the economic benefits through coordinated policy support and regional investment mechanisms.

Since 2025, the G60 valley has adopted a rotating coordination mechanism, with each of the nine cities taking turns to lead the joint office while establishing dedicated offices to coordinate policy implementation, factor mobility and regular exchanges on industrial cooperation, Xu Shidong said, adding: "We're trying to move beyond simply building a brand. The next stage is making companies genuinely feel the benefits of regional integration through practical policies."

The approach reflects China's broader effort to promote high-level technological self-reliance by integrating research, manufacturing and capital across regional clusters, making the G60 valley one of the country's most closely watched experiments in coordinated innovation.