Lujiazui, a financial zone in Shanghai Photo: VCG

The Shanghai government released an action plan on Thursday to facilitate the high-quality development of the manufacturing sector from 2023 to 2025. The plan aims to emphasize the supporting role of the manufacturing sector in the local economy and explore new approaches to industrialization.

According to the plan, by 2025, the total industry size of three pioneer manufacturing industries - semiconductor, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence (AI) - will reach 1.8 trillion yuan ($251.63 billion). This will lift Shanghai's industrial added value to over 1.3 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 25 percent of the regional GDP.

Specifically, the plan states that Shanghai aims to establish world-class industry clusters for the three pioneer industries and four clusters worth 1 trillion yuan each for electronic information, health, automobile, and high-end equipment. Additionally, the plan targets two industry clusters worth 500 billion yuan each for advanced materials and fast-moving consumer goods.

Shanghai also plans to foster around 15 new manufacturing enterprises with an annual production value of 10 billion yuan. Furthermore, the plan aims to facilitate initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 100 enterprises in the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

At the beginning of May, a State Council executive meeting was held to discuss and adopt a guideline on accelerating the development of advanced manufacturing clusters. China's State Council emphasizes the importance of accelerating the development of these clusters, considering the entire country and guiding localities to leverage their comparative advantages while intensifying efforts related to specialization and differentiation.

According to data from the Shanghai Statistics Bureau, the municipality's industry output value reached 1.23 trillion in the first four months of 2023, representing a 14.6 percent year-on-year increase. In April alone, the local manufacturing sector produced 163,000 automobiles, a fivefold increase compared to the previous year, and 2.10 billion pieces of integrated circuits, which is a 73.1 percent year-on-year increase.

Global Times