Innovation continues to fuel Pudong's growth over past decade

Since 2012, Pudong New Area in East China's Shanghai continues to drive high-quality development through scientific and technological innovation. [Photo/WeChat account: pdnews]

Pudong New Area in East China's Shanghai has been committed to driving high-quality development through scientific and technological innovation since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, and a modern and open industrial system has been fostered in the area.

According to official data, in the past 10 years, Pudong has witnessed its economy boom, with its GDP surpassing 1 trillion yuan ($138.85 billion) in 2017 and 1.5 trillion yuan in 2021. The area's total industrial output value above designated size increased from 925.4 billion yuan in 2011 to more than 1.24 trillion yuan in 2021, accounting for 31.5 percent of Shanghai's total volume, which was 2.6 percentage points higher than that in 2011.

The output value of the Pudong's strategic emerging industries rose from 240.78 billion yuan in 2012 to 608.94 billion yuan in 2021, and its proportion of total industrial output value increased from 26.1 percent to 49.7 percent during the past decade, which have become a main driving force boosting the high-quality development of Pudong’s industrial economy.

Pudong has also achieved breakthroughs in three of Shanghai's core industries - integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence (AI).

Currently, a complete industrial chain for integrated circuits has taken shape in Pudong. Official data shows that the industrial scale of Pudong's integrated circuits reached nearly 190 billion yuan last year, accounting for more than 70 percent of Shanghai's total amount, and 16.7 percent of the national total.

According to official statistics, the scale of Pudong's biomedicine industry totaled 320 billion yuan in 2021, and a number of key projects and functional platforms related to biomedicine are being developed in the area. Pudong also boasts advantages for the development of biomedicine such as a strong innovation capacity, institutional breakthroughs, and an improved industrial layout.

Additionally, an innovation ecosystem for AI has been built up in the area. It is now home to more than 600 key AI enterprises, with AI-related enterprises having a total industrial scale of over 130 billion yuan.

From 2012 to 2021, the core industries in Pudong have also boomed, such as aerospace, high-end equipment, and new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, which have offered strong support for Pudong's high-end industries.