WITH Shanghai stepping up its efforts to build a technology and innovation center of global influence, the Yangpu District is aiming to equip the most crucial technology and innovation
hub in the city by 2030 with rich industrial and talent heritage, Xie Jiangang, director of Yangpu District told Shanghai Daily.

“The development of Yangpu District has been eye-catching these years, thanks to its transformation from a traditional industrial base to an innovation hub,” Xie said.

The director elaborated the district’s ambitious goal based on current achievements at a media briefing last week. He said: “We plan to finish the strategic layout of Yangpu’s innovative industry by the end of 2016, work out a framework for the aggregation of innovation by 2020, and realize Yangpu’s function as a key platform for technology and innovation companies in Shanghai by 2030.”

Yangpu, once the mainstay of modern manufacturing in the northeastern part of Shanghai, is now home to about 600 innovative companies or institutions, including some internationally leading brands such as Siemens and IBM.

A blueprint has been drawn for Yangpu’s three core zones, the east, middle and west, well before these current achievements, according to Xie. They will help showcase knowledge and technology innovation, technology transfer and concentration, as well as public innovation.

Having up to 400,000 square meters of old factory space available for re-development into convenient, cost-effective workshops or open space, the district hopes to bolster innovation with the convergence of all kinds of companies, ranging from small- and medium-sized innovative companies to start-ups with potential to become tomorrow’s successful giants.

Yangpu is on track to attract multinational corporations (MNCs) to make presence here so as to obtain a spillover effect on the innovative industry, Xie said. The district aspires to have 30 headquarters and R&D centers of MNCs in five years to upgrade its innovation sector.

In Xie’s point of view, the ambitious blueprint and deepening transformation
for Yangpu in the next 10 to 15 years have solid foundations, such as university and foreign talent, industrial back-up and professional services provided by the administration.

“Together with 20 technology parks in cooperation with state-owned enterprises such as Aviation Industry Corporation of China, Yangpu has affluent high-level human resources and innovation capital,” Xie said.

Also as the birthplace of modern Shanghai’s higher education, Yangpu is the home to 10 prestigious universities with the world-renowned Fudan University at the forefront.

The fame as a cradle of talent and competitive office rentals have made Yangpu an ideal environment for the headquarters economy to thrive.

German manufacturers find Yangpu particularly comfortable as their home in China. Tongji University in the district is strong at engineering and has German ties in history.

Multinational companies

Strong intellectual ambience Yangpu has for automotive engineering, which is one of Tongji University’s academic strengths, attracts time-honored German auto parts and technology supplier Continental to become one of the earliest MNC residents in Yangpu.

Henkel, a German company that leads the chemical application in both consumer and industrial sectors, has long been in cooperation with Tongji over the study of materials for green vehicles. It has recently upgraded its Chinese headquarters in Yangpu District into the operation center of its Asia Pacific business, according to Meng Hongyu, vice director of commerce commission and economic commission of Yangpu District.

The district government also established a services platform, with 200 to 300 start-ups, whether big or small, getting low-cost or zero-cost funding assistance annually through different kinds of incubators, accelerators and technology parks in the district.

A total of 12,000 innovative companies have benefited from the system in the past three years with two million square meters of special areas designated for innovation in Yangpu, the director said. The number is growing 15 percent annually.

To support an innovation-driven economy in the mid-term, private equity and venture capital companies follow to help the development of the district’s innovation industry.

The district government has initially injected 500 million yuan (US$78 million) into the sector, Xie said, attracting a total of 20 billion yuan in social capital, mainly from Noah Wealth Management Co and China Broadband Capital. They help improve the overall investment and financing services system.

A case in point involves professional operator Silicon Valley Bank, who has established a 50-50 joint venture with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank in Shanghai. It is expected to focus exclusively on lending in yuan to technology firms in the Internet, healthcare, new energy and new material industries in the Yangpu district.

Its first group of clients include peer-to-peer lending service Jimubox and zhaogang.com, an e-commerce platform for the iron and steel industry, according to previous interviews by Shanghai Daily.

“The operation of the leading fund injected by the government was authorized
to professionals in Silicon Valley Bank Financial Group, and we see the loans and fundraising solutions in yuan by the bank will make Yangpu the real Silicon Valley in Shanghai.” Xie said.

As the next step, Yangpu will also forge itself to become the central area of modern services industry such as designing and intelligence manufacturing, with total sales generated by the designers in the district to surpass 100 billion yuan in the near future.

“It’s the government’s obligation to provide better environment for both innovation sectors and modern services industries to be in the area,” Xie said. “We hope Yangpu, under our efforts, will become one of the best district governments in Shanghai in terms of services, legal systems, transparency and efficiency to support the city as an international technology and innovation center by 2020.”