Shanghai’s Pudong New Area has been regarding talent as the primary resource for economic and social development and is enhancing efforts to create a more favorable environment in the Zhangjiang Science City for people to work, live and start businesses. 

At a symposium marking the 30th anniversary of the construction and development of Zhangjiang Science City on Sept 28, the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed mobilizing the strength of the whole city to support Zhangjiang and increase policy support for the construction of Zhangjiang Science City.

In a bid to optimize the talent system of Zhangjiang Science City, Pudong New Area has made it clear that it will further improve the support system for talents to start businesses and live in Zhangjiang on the basis of existing talent services.

Zhangjiang boasts a favorable environment for start-ups

AIxplorerBio, an innovative pharmaceutical company located in the offshore innovation and entrepreneurship base in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, recently announced that since its establishment in Zhangjiang in 2021, it has successfully identified three preclinical candidate compounds (PCCs) and entered preclinical research.

Such R&D efficiency is rare in the field of innovative drug research and development for the treatment of immune and neurodegenerative diseases. "This is mainly due to our strong talent team," the company's CEO Xu Daqiang said.

Since the company spans the fields of artificial intelligence and biopharmaceuticals, it urgently needs skilled individuals, so the company takes talent aggregation as the first consideration when selecting a site. After extensive research, the company decided last year to settle in Zhangjiang, which is home to more than 400,000 scientific and technological talents.

"It is indeed much easier to recruit talents in Zhangjiang than in other locations. There are artificial intelligence and biopharmaceutical industrial clusters and various talents are available. We currently have nearly 30 employees, of which 50 percent have doctoral degrees, and nearly half of our employees have overseas study or working experience. In the second quarter of this year, we also registered and set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Zhangjiang Science City, and the recruitment and construction speed of our talent team was also very fast,” Xu said.

In addition to team building, for start-ups, the convenience of resource acquisition and display in the industry circle are also important. After AIxplorerBio settled in Zhangjiang Kehai Building, by taking use of the unique advantage of the offshore base in Zhangjiang, it quickly came into contact with a number of surrounding innovative pharmaceutical companies, internet companies and other peers and customers, which helped get its business off to a good start.

"Especially in the past two years, I was invited to participate in the 'Haichuanghui' series of activities at the offshore base and took the opportunity to share the hot spots and trends of early-stage investment in innovative drugs, which helped us attract attention of more investors and enterprises from related industries," Xu said.

The offshore innovation and entrepreneurship base for overseas talents in the China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone is an important part of the talent service system of the Pudong New Area.

The base provides international comprehensive entrepreneurial services for overseas talents. It has held six "Haichuanghui" event series, which attracted nearly 10,000 talents from all over the world to participate, and has served 1,827 overseas entrepreneurial projects.

A large number of companies like AIxplorerBio have fully demonstrated their innovation capabilities on this platform and successfully connected to high-quality market opportunities. The offshore base will continue to improve professional services and support the development of high-quality overseas projects.

Zhangjing is also home to the Pudong International Talent Hub, which is the first talent service complex in China that integrates public services, human resources market services, innovation and entrepreneurship services and online services. So far, the hub has served more than 300,000 talents at home and abroad.

In addition, Zhangjiang is building large scientific facilities such as the Phase-II project of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) and the Shanghai high-repetition-rate XFEL and extreme light facility, also known as SHINE. There are high-level new scientific research institutions such as the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsung-dao Lee Institute, Human Phenome Institute of Fudan University, as well as professional platforms such as the Yangtze River Delta Capital Market Service Base, the Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center, the Shanghai Data Exchange, and the Shanghai Permanent Residency Affairs Service Center. These provide full-factor and full-cycle career development support guarantees for talents to innovate and start businesses in Zhangjiang Science City.

Zhangjing is improving housing supply for talents

In September last year, the Zhangjiang Nashi International Community - Shanghai's first rental housing project and Pudong New Area’s first district-level talent apartments – opened its door to residents.

The first phase of the project has a total construction area of about 190,000 square meters, and a total of 1,257 rental housing units have been put into use. The second and third phases of 340,000 sq m and 2,580 rental housing units will also be launched in the next few years.

In the past, talent apartments were generally characterized by affordable prices and compact room types. The apartments in Zhangjiang Science City have a total combined area of 250,000 sq m, meeting the rental needs of about 30,000 people. In 2019, Pudong further launched a pilot model for rural apartments in Zhangjiang town, exploring transforming idle rural houses into apartments. Many white-collar workers at surrounding enterprises have become new residents in the countryside.

Zhangjiang Nashi International Community is mainly for talent groups with higher requirements for their living environment. Shen Yule, a young engineer from the SSRF science center who has lived in the community for nearly a year, said that there are many old communities in Zhangjiang, and it was difficult to find new communities with high-quality conditions in the surrounding area in the past. Zhangjiang Nashi International Community not only provides central air conditioning, modern and intelligent kitchen and bathroom facilities, but also features an overall decoration style that is more in line with the aesthetics of young people.

Shen leases a two-bedroom 79-square-meter home. "The monthly rent is about 1,000 yuan ($137.51) cheaper than the same quality in Zhangjiang. Coupled with the early discount, it is more cost effective. I heard that some enterprises in Zhangjiang will also provide certain housing subsidies to employees who move in."

When Zhangjiang Nashi International Community was just completed, the surrounding supporting facilities were not perfect. However, in just one year, many restaurants and small shops have opened. Shen said that there is also a point-to-point shuttle bus to the park at the entrance of the community. "Parking in the community is also more convenient, and some middle-level leaders of our company also rent houses in this community."

In addition, the Zhangjiang Scientist Apartment project located in Sunqiao Science and Technology Innovation Center has also entered its construction stage. After completion, it will provide high-quality affordable rental housing mainly for scientific researchers in Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center and Zhangjiang Science City, which is also an important measure taken by Pudong to ensure the construction and operation of major science and technology innovation projects.

In recent years, through in-depth research on the real rental needs of talents in the Zhangjiang area, the Pudong New Area Talent Office has not only tried to provide various supplies for various talents to meet their housing needs, but also regularly arranges for service specialists to go to communities to provide talents with "doorstep" consultation and processing services for public affairs such as residence permit application and social security card application, which further brings convenience to talents in Zhangjiang.