Mayor honors innovative industry leaders

Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng awarded certificates to the first batch of 40 innovative enterprise headquarters in the city on Tuesday, highlighting the city's efforts to boost its key industrial fields such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence and the digital economy.

The innovative enterprises are the backbone of the city's ambition to improve its capacity and core competitiveness, and accelerate the construction of "five centers" of economy, finance, trade, shipping and scientific and technological innovation, as well as a modern industrial system, according to to the city's authorities.

Among the 40 awarded enterprises, there are industry giants and technology innovators, such as Shanghai Xiaodu Technology, a leading provider of artificial intelligence services and products, and Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare, a developer of high-end medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment.

The awarded enterprises have high R&D investment, strong market share, rapid growth potential and obvious agglomeration effect. They have also achieved a number of major breakthroughs and original products in their fields, and some of them have been listed in China and abroad.

Li Ying, CEO of Shanghai Xiaodu Technology, said that Shanghai's strong innovation ecosystem, complete preferential policy system and thoughtful government services provide a fertile ground for the development of artificial intelligence innovative enterprises.

"In such an open, inclusive and generous entrepreneurial environment, Xiaodu's pace of progress is faster. So far, Xiaodu has provided intelligent services for more than 40 million households and hundreds of millions of users; it has provided voice interaction and other AI technology support for more than 1,500 enterprises in various fields; it has also obtained nearly 1,000 domestic and foreign patent authorizations, of which about 700 are invention patents," Li said.

Li said that in the future, Xiaodu will continue to take root in Shanghai, continue to focus on AI innovation in the field of human-computer interaction, and contribute to the city's development of a high-quality innovation economy and the construction of a global influential science and technology innovation center.

Tan Guosheng, general manager and CEO of Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare, said that in recent years, the key fields such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence and the digital economy have undergone tremendous changes in China, especially in Shanghai.

"More than a decade ago, China's high-end medical equipment industry was basically dependent on imports. But today, after 12 years of continuous high-intensity innovation and research and development, United Imaging has the independent research and development capabilities of the full line of high-end medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment, mastered the key core technologies, and some products and technologies have even achieved global leadership," Tan said.

Tan said that in recent years, the governments at all levels in Shanghai have continuously made efforts to support the development of enterprises and create a headquarters economy, and made enterprises feel the real benefits.

In recent years, Shanghai's innovative enterprises have grown rapidly and have a significant impact on the industry. In 2022, the added value of the city's strategic emerging industries reached 1.06 trillion yuan (US$149.06 billion), up 8.6 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 23.8 percent of the city's gross domestic product. The proportion of research and development expenditure to GDP was about 4.44 percent.

Specifically, the scale of the city's integrated circuit industry accounted for more than a quarter of the country's total, while the number of biomedical enterprises listed on the SSE STAR Market accounted for a quarter of the country's total. The city also had more than 1,100 key artificial intelligence enterprises, and the added value of the core industries of the digital economy contributed to 13.5 percent of the city's GDP.

The city issued the "Measures for the Identification and Reward Management of Innovative Enterprise Headquarters in Shanghai" in February this year, which stipulates that the main products or services of the innovative enterprise headquarters must conform to the key fields specified by the national "Key Products and Services Guidance Catalog of Strategic Emerging Industries" and the scope of the core industries of the digital economy.

The city also provides financial support, policy incentives and government services for the innovative enterprises, aiming to create a favorable environment for their development and growth.

The city has also achieved a number of major breakthroughs and original products in the fields of integrated circuit equipment and materials, high-end medical imaging equipment, original new drugs, robots and the data industry, among others.

For the next step, Shanghai pledges to take sci-tech innovation as the guide, accelerate the cultivation of world-class high-end industrial clusters, accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system, continuously optimize the environment for science and technology and industrial innovation , and support more innovative enterprises to develop and grow in the city.