Shanghai’s Pudong New Area is on a path of independent innovation to pursue higher-level reform and opening-up.

On July 15 of last year, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and China’s State Council issued a guideline to promote Pudong's high-level reform and opening-up and to make Pudong a pioneer in socialist modernization.

The guideline made it clear that building world-class innovative industry clusters - which emphasizes the capacity to participate in international industrial competition and cooperation - is Pudong's significant responsibility in terms of scientific and technical innovation.

Pudong has been driving the modernization of industrial chains countrywide and expanding the global influence of industrial clusters over the past year with the aim of boosting its autonomous innovation capabilities and the leading roles of high-end industries. It has also looked into creating an innovation ecosystem and chain, launched a number of model initiatives, and is blazing a trail for autonomous invention under open conditions.

Pudong has been promoting the rapid progress of 5G. In the 5G era, Chinese chips have caught up with the world's industry leaders. Innovative drugs have also been developed in Pudong and are contributing to oncology and other therapeutic fields globally. The Shanghai Data Exchange was established in Pudong to promote the circulation of data elements and release digital dividends, and more than 100 data products have been listed on the exchange.

Pudong is preparing to take the next step by maximizing the legislative authorization's promotional impact on advancements in science and technology. Based on the general source of the entire scientific system, Pudong will take the lead in building Shanghai into a globally influential scientific and technological innovation center, and make the pioneer area an example for breeding scientific, technological and industrial innovation.

Pudong is the ideal location to explore "from nothing". It is maximizing the legislative authorization's promotional impact on industrial development.

After receiving a PhD in biomedical engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Du Qian moved to the United States to pursue a career in brain research. She created the COVID-19 saliva detection reagent and the first FDA-certified brain illness early screening device while working abroad. Du and her team established their first company in Pudong’s Zhangjiang this year with the hope of taking the most cutting-edge brain science research findings out of the lab and industrializing them. She stated that Pudong is the ideal location to explore “from nothing”.

Leading innovation calls for ongoing breakthroughs, taking the initiative to solve challenging issues, breaking down institutional barriers, and even making the impossible seem possible.

Pudong is even more anticipated than Shanghai, which is typically seen as a biomedical highland with fierce competition. According to the most recent statistics, Zhangjiang in Pudong is home to one-third of the country's research and development (R&D) facilities for new medications, one-third of its main new drug creation initiatives, and one-third of the country's officially recognized Class I innovative drugs.

Keeping in line with the most advanced industrial clusters in the world, Pudong’s high-level biopharmaceutical industry chain is striving to further improve itself and achieve a new round of breakthroughs.

Pudong, which is accelerating its progress towards becoming a pioneer area for socialist modernization, welcomed a major regulation last year. On Dec 29, 2021, the 38th plenary meeting of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress passed a regulation promoting the construction of a biomedicine industrial innovation highland in Pudong’s Zhangjiang. The regulation has a total of 34 articles targeting the most acute bottlenecks. It adjusted and filled gaps in existing laws and regulations in five aspects: improving the management system, promoting reform breakthroughs, innovating service mechanisms, promoting industrial integration, and strengthening resource guarantees.

The legislative reform that focuses on straightening out the obstacles and difficulties will also be extended to other key industries.

Li Hui, director of Pudong’s technology and economy commission, said that this year, the innovative application of intelligent and connected vehicles legislation has been launched, as well as special legislation to promote the development of new R&D institutions.

Li said that the construction of the pioneer area actually empowers Pudong to develop legislation. Last year, under the leadership of the city's functional departments, the commission formulated and issued construction regulations for the biomedicine industry, and the industry has benefited from the effects of regulations on improving the business environment. This year, the establishment of new regulations will make institutional breakthroughs and will be more conducive to the coordinated development of Pudong’s three leading industries and six major industries in the innovation chain, industrial chain and value chain. The new regulations will help develop world-class industrial clusters and will give full play to the pioneer area’s leading role in the overall industry and economy.

Openness is the most distinctive character of Pudong. The area has formed a pyramid-shaped innovation pattern.

In May, the Roche China Accelerator announced that over the past year, nine local innovative companies stood out from more than 200 applicants and are now members of the accelerator. The screening standard is "disruptive innovation" and the selection rate is less than 5 percent. The member companies all have unique research achievements covering multiple therapeutic fields such as oncology, immunology and neuroscience.

Global pharmaceutical company Roche was one of the first 20 companies to join Pudong’s Group Open Innovation (GOI) plan. The Roche China Accelerator is among the first members of the GOI plan.

The plan is part of Pudong’s efforts to accomplish the mission assigned by the central government to turn Pudong into a pioneering force with socialist modernization in China and help develop the area into a self-reliant innovation engine.

The GOI plan encourages industry leaders to set up open innovation platforms, which is a move that is in line with the global innovation trend and helps attract and gather innovative forces to achieve collaborative innovation. Deeper integration between government services, industries, universities, research institutes, finance, services and application of innovation results will be advanced via the GOI plan in Pudong.

Pudong's continuous openness, better services and better business environment have attracted many multinational companies to join the plan. The latest statistics from Pudong’s technology and economy commission show that since the release of the GOI plan, many large enterprises have actively signed up to join. This year, 34 companies have been awarded licenses, and more than one-third of the goal of “attracting 100 companies in three years” has been completed. The GOI plan has gathered 10 technology empowerment partners, 16 credit empowerment partners and 10 investment empowerment partners.

Vivian Bian, CEO of Roche Pharma China, which is the first foreign-funded enterprise to settle in Zhangjiang, said that internationalization is one of the key factors for the success of Pudong's development and opening-up over the past 30 years, and it is also an important foundation for Pudong to achieve higher-quality development. Roche Pharmaceuticals will continue to develop in Shanghai and Pudong while benefiting Chinese patients and promoting pharmaceutical innovation to contribute to the high-quality development of Pudong.

Over the past 30 years of development and opening-up, Pudong has also transformed into a key engine for technological innovation. It has first created a framework for creating a technological innovation hub with global influence, as well as a pyramid-shaped innovation pattern that is supported by tens of thousands of innovators and entrepreneurs and supported by dozens of key laboratories and top-tier scientific research institutes.

The guideline also suggests transforming Pudong into a significant hub for independent innovation. Fourteen significant national scientific and technology infrastructures are being built or are already operational in Shanghai. The number of facilities, the quantity of investment, and the rate of construction are all leaders in the nation and unique in a variety of ways. Eight of them, including the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the National Center for Protein Science (Shanghai), Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility, Shanghai Soft X-ray Free-Electron Laser Test Facility Shanghai Soft X-ray Free-Electron Laser User Facility are located in Zhangjiang Science City.

In terms of building world-class innovative industry clusters and deepening the reform of the scientific and technological innovation system, in the past year, Pudong has successively launched the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for the Construction of the Core Area of the International Science and Technology Innovation Center and the three-year action plan (2021-2023) for Artificial Intelligence Empowering Digital Economy. The area deeply integrates the overall goal of reform and opening-up with the construction of scientific and technological innovation carrier platforms and key areas, so that all types of individuals can deeply participate in global industrial and technological competition and cooperation, and have their own place in the world by virtue of independent innovation.

Innovative ecology injects new vitality in Pudong. The area provides more resources to scientific and technical workers.

Breeding innovation is highlighted amid Pudong’s efforts to build itself into a pioneer area for socialist modernization. Pudong is also improving its environment so that scientific and technical workers can have more innovative resources to use.

This year, under the guidance of the Shanghai municipal government, Pudong took a step forward and participated in the establishment of the Shanghai Regional Innovation and Development Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China together with the municipal government. At present, the preliminary work is almost finished.

Li also noted that the National Natural Science Foundation of China is regarded as the best in China's scientific and technological circles and is very important for R&D institutions and related scientific researchers. The foundation encourages local R&D organizations and researchers in Pudong to be enthusiastic about working on projects and strives to attract new R&D organizations and scientific research talents to Pudong.

Pudong upgraded services in addition to high-standard facilities to maximize its soft environment in order to establish a new highland of innovation. The basic operations of the Science and Technology Innovation Center are being improved, and Zhangjiang Science City is also going through significant development.

The Zhangjiang Science Gate construction project in, which consists of twin towers with a combined height of 320 meters, saw new advancement on the afternoon of July 11. One of the office buildings had a roof over its primary construction, which reached a height of 160 meters. The 320-meter west tower's ultra high-rise core tube has been roofed first, and the east tower is catching up.

Next to the Zhangjiang Science Gate, the Zhangjiang Science Hall with gradient facades of 10 colors has also been completed, and uses sunlight, earth, water and air as natural design elements.

Across the river from the Zhangjiang Science Gate, Zhangjiang Cement Plant is also about to transform. Together with the Zhangjiang Science Hall and surrounding buildings, it will form the sub-center of Zhangjiang Science City and become a symbol of science and technology innovation in Pudong.

Yuan Tao, chairman of Zhangjiang Group, said that they will transform the Zhangjiang Cement Plant into a complex industrial park integrating industrial symbiosis, architectural diversification, and cultural sharing by building new headquarters offices and standard tower offices, developing cultural services and creative commercial facilities, and retaining and renovating historical industrial buildings such as the 10,000-meter warehouses and cement silos. This piece of land is expected to become the main area for scientific and technological innovation that meets the growth needs of enterprises and industrial development and injects new vitality into Zhangjiang's industrial space and industrial ecology.

Pudong places a strong emphasis on both technology and the culture, which has attracted many talents working in science and technology fields to take jobs in the area and settle down. Zhangjiang Science City, for instance, has 499,000 employees and more than 16 percent of its science and technology talents have a master's degree or higher, making it a national hub for creative potential.

Numerous leading international corporations have started talking about expanding the capacity of their projects in Pudong since the beginning of this year, and according to a key corporate figure, Pudong has developed into a talent magnet. The companies aim to achieve more industrialized patterns in Pudong in the future, exhibiting their strengths on the global stage with "R&D in Pudong" and "Intelligent Manufacturing in Pudong," in addition to developing the most cutting-edge research in the area.