Shanghai has announced plans for advanced manufacturing within the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), aiming to boost the development of the sector and enhance its role in economic expansion.

 

By 2025, Shanghai is aiming to maintain the manufacturing industry’s role in the city’s overall economy, with growth in the 14th Five-Year Plan to exceed the 2% from the previous plan between 2016 and 2020.

 

"The manufacturing industry is the backbone of the real economy and we will follow the direction given by President Xi Jinping that the focus of economic development should be on the real economy," stated Wu Qing, Shanghai’s vice mayor.

 

The plan will focus on four angles, including economic density of advanced manufacturing, innovation, brand-building and digital transformation.

 

One objective is to consolidate the manufacturing sector as the foundation of the real economy. Last year, manufacturing industry output made up 25% of Shanghai's total GDP.

Moreover, the size of three prominent industries – integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence – will be more than doubled.

One of the main development points of the 14th Five-Year Plan is the 3+6 new industrial system. This refers to three leading industries, namely integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, and six key industry clusters: electronic information, life and health, automobiles, high-end equipment, advanced materials and consumer fashion goods.

"In the 14th Five-Year Plan, we will develop manufacturing based on the 3+6 blueprint and promote the production of these industries," according to Wu Jincheng, director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatisation.

"In fact, three leading industries are subsets of the six key industries and shoulder the national strategy given by the central government and have leading functions.

"Therefore, the three are placed in more prominent position."

The output value of these six industries has risen 13-fold over the past 30 years.