A robot is displayed at the experience center for digital transformation of Shanghai. (PHOTO: S&T Daily)

By JIN Feng and ZHONG Jianli

Shanghai, a pioneering city of high-quality development, is once again setting trends by creating a new industrial system through sci-tech innovation.

"The total industrial output of Shanghai continued to be maintained at four trillion RMB, with that of strategic emerging industries accounting for 43 percent," said Tang Wenkan, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, at a press briefing on May 11, adding that sci-tech innovation plays a pivotal role in leading the city's high-quality industrial development.

In 2022, Shanghai proposed a set of policy measures to promote the development of a high-end manufacturing industry.

The city has continued to make progress in exploring the development of digitalized and green manufacturing. Tang said that Shanghai has taken the lead in building a number of demonstration factories of "green plus intelligent manufacturing" in the fields of automobile, food, chemical industry and aerospace equipment.

"We have built a total of 100 smart factories. The robot density in Shanghai is 260 robots per 10,000 people, more than twice of the international average level. Also, the city has promoted a number of '5G + AI+ industrial Internet' innovative applications," said Tang.

Aimed at establishing a modern industrial system, the city has made every effort to build innovation hubs in three leading industries — integrated circuit (IC), biomedicine, and AI.

The whole IC industrial chain, including design, manufacturing, sealing and testing, has greatly improved, with more than 1,000 key enterprises located in the city. The biomedicine industry has focused on developing biological products, innovative chemical drugs, and high-end medical devices, while breakthroughs are also made in AI algorithm innovation and application.

Looking into the future, Shanghai is laying out some emerging industries. It has issued an action plan for future industrial development, and set up three pilot areas for future industries in Zhangjiang, Lingang and the neoBay area in Minhang district.

In developing the future health industry, Shanghai has set its sights on frontier fields such as brain-computer interface, biosafety, synthetic biology, gene and cell therapy. In the field of future intelligent industry, it promotes technological breakthroughs in intelligent computing, general AI, extended reality, quantum technology and 6G.

The city will also tackle key issues in such fields as energy storage technology, deep-sea exploration, and high-end membrane materials.