Although the Lingang New Area, which was just unveiled last week, has not yet ushered in specific details, it has not stopped for a moment in terms of industrial layout and factor aggregation.

First, the Lingang Intelligent Connected Vehicle Comprehensive Test Demonstration Zone was opened on the 23rd, and then the 2019 World Top Scientists Forum press briefing was held on the afternoon of the 24th. More than 60 of the world's top scientists will gather in Lingang at the end of October.

As a major strategic plan for China to further expand opening up, the Lingang New Area not only aims to create a special economic function zone with greater international market competitiveness and influence, but also serves as an important carrier for further integration into the global scientific and technological innovation system.

Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Shanghai Federation of Social Social Sciences weighed in and told China Business News that innovation must be promoted in an open environment, and it is definitely not about pursuing innovation behind closed doors. Every city is an important node city in the global innovation network system. "Silicon Valley's talents do not necessarily come from the United States. Instead, it provides a convenient platform and uses institutional mechanisms to attract talents from around the world. In the future, Lingang can consider gathering the world's top talents to allow the free flow and allocation of factors."

Important nodes in the global innovation system

Against the background that the global scientific and technological innovation landscape is constantly being reshaped, the development of science and technology also places greater emphasis on exchanges and cooperation.

In the world's major economies, regional innovation has always been an important indicator for measuring innovation activities. From the geographical location point of view, Lingang, located in the southeast of Shanghai, is at the intersection of the Yangtze River Estuary and Hangzhou Bay. It not only has transportation channels such as Pudong Airport and Yangshan Port, but is also an important node connecting Shanghai to the Yangtze River Delta and even the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It is not difficult to find that in the technological collaboration in the Yangtze River Delta region, Lingang has already begun its layout.

The "Shanghai Lingang Area's Integration into the "Yangtze River Delta Integration" Action Plan" released in November last year pointed out that Lingang will promote the integration of the "Yangtze River Delta Integration" according to the "1+2+5+7" framework, including the creation of a north-south science and technology innovation corridor with Lingang-Zhangjiang as the main axis, and the Yangtze River Delta Coastal Innovation Belt with the eastern coastal cities as the main axis.

Lingang has also built cooperation parks in Haining, Zhejiang, Dafeng, Jiangsu, and Yancheng, and has built regional science and technology innovation centers in Qingpu, Jinshan and other areas. The Lingang Songjiang Science and Technology City jointly built by it and Shanghai Songjiang District has become the bridgehead for the construction of the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor that runs through three provinces and one city.

Compared with radiating and driving domestic development, Lingang is more important in integrating into the global science and technology system. For example, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area Management Measures (hereinafter referred to as the "Management Measures") provide a number of benefits for talents, the subject of scientific and technological innovation: optimizing the direct settlement policy for talents in the new area, providing foreigners withEntry, exit and work facilitation measures will be implemented to further realize the free movement of people.

Shen Kaiyan, director of the Institute of Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told China Business News that this new area has made great breakthroughs in terms of the free flow of talents, both in terms of restrictions on foreigners' employment and their overseas employment experience. "For example, overseas personnel are allowed to apply to take my country's relevant professional qualification examinations in the new area. In the past, only Chinese citizens could apply for this."

In the process of building Shanghai into a globally influential science and technology innovation center, it is also continuing to create a system-wide talent policy. We have successively issued action plans for the "20 Talents", "30 Talents", and the Talent Peak Project, actively promoted the pilot work of the foreigner work permit system and foreign talent visa system in China, and improved the overseas talent residence permit system. Official data shows that the number of foreigners currently working in Shanghai is 215,000, accounting for 23.7% of the country’s total, ranking first in the country.

In an interview with a reporter from China Business News on the 25th, Weng Weng said that one of the most important functions of the Lingang Special Economic Function Zone is to gather the world's top talents, scientists, and innovative elements in Shanghai. Drawing on international experience, such as the innovations of Israel, Finland, and the United States, their common feature is that they can create various convenient conditions to bring together the world's top talents and form a collision of ideas. This innovative gathering platform will have an energy-gathering effect in both basic and applied research. Industrialization also has special significance for Lingang. Lingang faces the Yangtze River Delta internally and can greatly radiate domestically. It can also leverage the platform to gather the world's top innovative elements.

Roger Kornberg, chairman of the World Association of Top Scientists and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, said that Shanghai has the best scientific and technological innovation environment in the country and even the world. One of the important reasons is to attract talents.

Roger Kornberg told media including China Business News on the afternoon of the 24th that Shanghai has a good atmosphere for science and technology innovation because it has world-class universities such as Jiaotong University and Fudan University, and the preferential policies provided, such as the current new policy in Lingang, are also attracting talents from all over China except Shanghai to gather here. In addition, Shanghai has gathered many outstanding scientists from around the world, which is very beneficial for Shanghai to integrate into the global scientific and technological innovation system. "An indispensable characteristic of America's technological leadership is that it attracts scientists from around the world outside the United States to participate in their scientific and technological innovation."

A port of intelligent manufacturing for the entire chain

In 2018, Pudong New Area announced the promotion of Zhangjiang-Lingang "dual-district linkage", giving Zhangjiang and Lingang their respective positions in building Pudong's "North-South Science and Technology Innovation Corridor".

As the core carrying area for the construction of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center, Zhangjiang’s source of innovation capabilitiesIt has outstanding comprehensive strength and scientific and technological strength; Lingang is the main carrying area and open innovation pilot area for Shanghai to build a technological innovation center with global influence, and will be built into an "International Intelligent Manufacturing City" and a "Coastal Future City".

From the perspective of industrial layout, the new area should focus on building four major open industrial systems - cutting-edge technology industries, new international trade, high-energy shipping services, and cross-border financial services. It can be found that in Lingang, smart manufacturing driven by "technological innovation + high-end industry" has produced many achievements.

China's first C919 large aircraft engine with independent intellectual property rights, the world's most advanced JU2000E jack-up drilling platform, the country's first 300 mm silicon ingot, the world's most advanced jack-up drilling platform...

Lingang’s physical space can also better undertake the last-mile transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements. In order to seamlessly connect from basic research, technological invention to implementation and transformation, Lingang strives to build five major functional platforms to support intelligent manufacturing. It is expected that the framework will be initially formed in 2020.

For example, functional platforms for R&D and transformation include the Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the "Industrial Internet Innovation Center" led by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. The technological innovation platform includes the “Industry 4.0 Comprehensive Research Institute” led by SIASUN Robotics. The data information platform will rely on the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and China Mobile IDC Data Center to build an industrial cloud industry alliance.

The "Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Action Plan (2019-2021)" previously released by the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Technology Commission proposed to build a world-class intelligent manufacturing industry center in Lingang.

The action plan proposes to comprehensively consider factors such as resource endowment, industrial foundation, and regional positioning to form a "one core and one belt" intelligent manufacturing development spatial layout in Shanghai. This also coincides with the promotion of the agglomeration of integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, aerospace, new energy vehicles, high-end intelligent equipment and other industries in the new area management regulations.

Yan Feng, deputy general manager of Shanghai Shanghai Aircraft Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., is deeply touched by the changes in Lingang in recent years. He told China Business News that when the company was first built, there were still a lot of fields around it. In the past two years, surrounding companies have grown up very quickly, mainly focusing on several major emerging industries.

He said that the new area has released three major benefits for equipment companies like them. In addition to the most meaningful talent measures, it also helps in terms of taxation and land approval speed. "This tax incentive will have direct benefits for the enterprise as a whole and the import and procurement of raw materials. In addition, we are currently applying for land, and the improvement in land approval efficiency will be of great benefit to production."