Despite pandemic, Shanghai supports vibrant tech scene

Shanghai’s high tech firms, especially small and medium sized enterprises, are growing steadily with organic innovation and various policy supports during the epidemic, the city's industry regulator said. 

Shanghai has over 15,000 registered high-tech firms, including 3,000 top-level firms with unique innovations or special contributions, and 33 firms listed in the Shanghai STAR Market, according to the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization.

During the COVID-19 outbreak this year, Shanghai offered special loans with favorable interest rates, built city-level cloud platforms, provided flexible regulations and established a team with 4,696 people to specifically serve SMEs, according to the commission. 

By September, Shanghai offered special epidemic-related loans of 319.7 billion yuan (US$47 billion). The average interest rate was 5.17 percent, 1.46 percentage points lower than the benchmark market level.

Also this week, Shanghai established an expert committee to serve as a city-level think tank for local private businesses. In total, 15 consultants from private enterprises, research organizations and investment organizations were appointed as the first batch of committee members.