Shanghai is known for its commitment to optimizing its business environment and stood out among the most popular global investment destinations in 2023. Let's take a look back at the most notable events that defined Shanghai's business and investment last year.

New policies

Shanghai announced 24 new investment-promotion policies in April, including a slew of subsidies and incentive plans to strengthen global investors’ confidence and attract big projects.

Headquarters projects may get a subsidy up to 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) for property. Major investment projects can receive an award of up to 100 million yuan for a single project. The following is a list of the maximum awards a single project in a certain industry can get:

Three leading industries:

• Integrated circuits: up to 100 million yuan
• Biomedicine: up to 30 million yuan
• Artificial intelligence: up to 20 million yuan
• Four emerging industries:
• Intelligent terminals: up to 30 million yuan
• Green and low-carbon economy: up to 50 million yuan
• Digital economy: up to 8 million yuan
• Metaverse: up to 20 million yuan

New projects

The 2023 Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference witnessed the signing of 26 projects, with a combined investment of 67.4 billion yuan. Ten leading scientists also announced collaboration with local companies and research institutions at the conference.

The sixth China International Import Expo in Shanghai saw a record $78.41 billion in tentative deals for purchases of goods and services. The value of this year's deals increased 6.7 year-on-year.

During the China International Industry Fair, a total of 17 projects with a combined investment of 8.8 billion yuan were inked.

Here is an incomplete list of major industrial projects signed in 2023 with a contract value of over 1 billion yuan:

• China Electrical Equipment Group headquarters project
• Shanghai carbon peak sci-tech innovation center and industrial park project
• Moderna China R&D and production headquarters project
• New Dimension Systems headquarters project
• Inceptio Technology project: Autonomous driving
• Kohodo Hydrogen Energy industrial complex project
• Tesla's energy storage megafactory project

New progress

Progress was made on major projects in 2023:

Biomedicine

• Secondary structure of the Innovent global R&D center completed.
• Phase I of the Shanghai Pharmaceutical biopharmaceutical industrial base topped out.
• Construction began for the InnoStar headquarters and innovation commercialization center.

Integrated circuits

• Phase I of the WeEn Semiconductors module factory put into operation.
• Construction began for the Awinic test center for automotive-grade chips.

Automobiles

• Hesai Maxwell Intelligent Manufacturing Center basically completed.
• Huacheng Auto's technology development center basically completed.

High-end equipment

• Phase III of Shanghai Fanuc Smart Factory completed.
• Structural topping-out for the joint processing workshop of Changxing shipbuilding base phase II.

Advanced materials

• Covestro's new plant for polyurethane elastomers systems began production.

Renewed efforts

As of mid-December, investment-promotion departments at various levels in Shanghai had undertaken nearly 1,000 activities to attract investment.

• "Invest in Shanghai – National Tour" organized more than 800 investment-promotion activities in more than 100 cities.
• "Invest in Shanghai – Global Tour" organized 54 promotional events and facilitated the signing of 221 projects.

Shanghai-Italy

• More than 100 major Italian companies participated.

Shanghai-Switzerland

• More than 80 major Swiss companies participated.

Shanghai-United States

• More than 100 US companies participated.

New vision for the future

Shanghai is accelerating construction of a modern industrial system:

• 2 types of traditional industry transformation: Digital and green and low-carbon transitions
• 3 leading industries: Integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence
• 6 key industries: Electronic information, life science and healthcare, automobiles, high-end equipment, advanced materials and modern consumer goods
• 4 emerging industries: Digital economy, green and low-carbon economy, metaverse, and intelligent terminals
• 5 promising domains of the future: Future health, future intelligence, future energy, future space and future materials

The city has also unveiled three pilot zones for future-oriented industries

Zhangjiang

• Advantages: Large scientific facilities, high-level innovation platforms, and clustering of hardcore industries
• Focus: Future health, future chips, future intelligence, future energy and materials
• Expected scale by 2030: 200 billion yuan

Lin-gang

• Advantages: Institutional advantages as a pilot FTZ, a cluster of frontier industries
• Focus: Future health, future intelligence, future energy, and future space
• Expected scale by 2030: 100 billion yuan

Greater NeoBay

• Advantages: Home to two leading universities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and East China Normal University, global innovation and entrepreneurship community, and Zizhu National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Park
• Focus: Future intelligence, future energy, and future space
• Expected scale by 2030: 100 billion yuan

Source: yicai.com