Leading innovation hubs tie up for win-win strategy

Shanghai's two major innovative hubs, located in Zhangjiang and Lingang, will share resources and form cooperations to build pioneering scientific and technological clusters, authorities announced yesterday.

Zhangjiang Science City and the Lingang smart manufacturing base will form a “South-North Science and Technology Corridor” in the Pudong New Area to provide whole-chain service to local industrial players, boost the city’s science and technology development and act as a world-class innovation incubator in the Yangtze River Delta.

Within three years, three industrial clusters — devoted to medicine, integrated circuit and smart cars respectively — will be formed. Besides, the corridor will be home to at least 10 “unicorns” in artificial intelligence, information technology and other cutting-edge fields, according to the plan.

Zhangjiang, home to world-class labs and scientific research institutions, shines a spotlight on the development of three traditional industries — information technology, biological medicine and cultural creativity — and cutting-edge fields of intelligence, aviation and low-carbon environmental protection.

Lingang, an emerging smart manufacturing base in Pudong, leads the country in the research and development of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Also, it is promoting the development of high-end “smart” devices, oceanic equipment and intelligent vehicles. Meanwhile, it wants to extend by exploring development in emerging fields within software and information technology, integrated circuits, aeronautics and energy conservation.

This strategy links industrial resources and optimizes the industrial layouts of Zhangjiang and Lingang, marking a win-win cooperation, said Tang Shiqing, director of Pudong’s technology and economy commission.

Tang said six industrial clusters — devoted to biological medicine, integrated circuits, driverless cars, artificial intelligence, information and software and civil aviation — are planned to be built by the end of 2020.

The labs in Zhangjiang will focus on research and invention, while the results and products will be made in factories and tested in Lingang.