Shanghai’s three leading industries, namely integrated circuit, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, topped CNY1 trillion ($143.6 billion) in 2021, as the city speeds up the construction of a new industrial system.

The integrated circuit industry totalled CNY250 billion ($36 billion) last year, accounting for 25% of the country’s total, according to the director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, Wu Jincheng during a press conference on Wednesday. 

He went on to say that biomedicine and artificial intelligence hit CNY700 billion and CNY305.6 billion, respectively.

Shanghai has been boosting its business environment to attract investments to create new industries. “Shanghai built more than 30 projects with an investment of over CNY10 billion ($1.4 billion) each and more than 250 projects with investments exceeding CNY1 billion ($144 million) each over the past five years,” Wu went on to say, adding that it held the Global Investment Promotion Conference for three consecutive years, with contracts signed totalling CNY1.5 trillion.

Shanghai has been optimising its industrial space layout since 2020 and created 53 industrial parks, featuring a total of 2.1 million square metres for the development of emerging industries, Wu commented.

According to plans unveiled at the press conference, Wu said the city is set to focus on green and low carbon, metaverse, and intelligent terminal industries to determine further development trajectories for the new industrial system.

The plans also stated that green and low carbon industries, such as resource recycling and clean energy, will hit CNY500 billion by 2025. In addition, augmented reality and virtual reality will reach CNY350 billion, whilst intelligent terminal industries, including service robots and smart vehicles will reach CNY700 billion by 2025.