Lin-gang Special Area eyes 7.5% growth

As a testing ground for China's deepening reform and opening-up, Lin-gang Special Area, part of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, should initiate and lead a higher level of openness and institutional innovation while consolidating its role as an engine of Shanghai's high quality economic growth, said officials during a news conference on Friday.

Lin-gang is aiming for an average annual GDP growth of 7.5 percent during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, with over 6 percent of the area's GDP being directed to research and development. An incremental 70 nationally pioneering institutional innovation cases are expected to be introduced by Lingang in the next five years, after 60 were introduced during the past five-year period, according to Tang Hao, executive deputy director of Lingang's administrative committee.

More effort should be made to develop offshore finance in Lingang, including developing the FTZ offshore bonds and offshore reinsurance businesses. Financial services targeting offshore trade will be prioritized, especially those based on commodity trading, according to Tao Changsheng, deputy director of the Shanghai municipal financial services office.

This addresses the action plan for developing offshore finance in Shanghai, which was released at this year's Lujiazui Forum in June.

International data services will feature in Lin-gang's development over the next five years. On the one hand, cross-border data flow will be further expanded both in terms of scope and volume, with the cross-border transmission of personal information within multinational companies made easier. On the other, Lin-gang will develop services that involve processing data imported from overseas and helping domestic digital businesses expand globally.

In summary, the area will prioritize offshore-facing services like data-labeling and training for vertical large language models. Outbound companies will be encouraged to leverage Lin-gang to expand their overseas data storage, hosting, processing and analytics businesses. Therefore, a complete industrial chain covering data collection, cleansing and artificial intelligence labeling should be built in Lin-gang, according to the plan.

To advance two-way opening-up, Lin-gang will attract outbound companies to set up regional headquarters for their overseas businesses while providing a convenient and transparent investment environment by broadening the targeted foreign investment catalog and leveraging the favorable tax policies in the area, according to Chen Hao, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

Accelerated development of frontier industries will be another highlight of Lin-gang in the next five years. The area aims to build a 120-billion-yuan ($17.86 billion) integrated circuit industry by underlining the development of key parts such as photoresist and vacuum valves while advancing the use of critical materials such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride.

The target for the intelligent automobile industry is set at an even higher 300 billion yuan by 2030. Lin-gang will work to make proactive steps in emerging battery technologies, core technologies for high-level automated driving, automotive chip design and the R&D of multimodal interaction.

With a strategic focus on energy, power systems and aerospace, Lingang's high-end equipment manufacturing sector is projected to see its total value stand above 100 billion yuan by 2030, according to Tang of the Lin-gang administration.

To achieve these goals, Lin-gang will promote the application of industrial robots and AI in industrial scenarios. One-person companies will be supported. The construction and use of high-end research platforms will be accelerated. Efforts will be made to strengthen concept validation, pilot-scale production and commercial validation, said Tang.