CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Thursday, January 14, 2021 | 15 BUSINESSFOCUS Editor's Note: Shanghai’s economy remained resilient despite the COVID-19 impact. To further unleash its enormous development potential, Shanghai launched 64 major projects with a combined investment of 273.4 billion yuan ($42.2 billion) on the first working day of 2021, covering sectors like scientif- ic and technological innovation, infrastructure and people’s livelihoods. Here are some key projects identified for different fields. Shanghai looks to be biomed valley of Asia By ZHOU WENTING in Shanghai “Several innovative anti-tumor [email protected] drugs by the company are cur- rently at various clinical trial sta- Multiple new biomedicine pro- ges, and there is also an urgent jects were included on Jan 4 need for an industrialized plat- among the 64 new projects in form to ensure that the R&D pro- Shanghai, which is positioning grams will eventually be landed itself to be a biomedical hub for in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang,” the Asia. company added. The new projects have attract- It said that the base will not ed significant investment and only serve research and develop- will help construct a better indus- ment for its own purposes but trial layout throughout the city also provide a one-stop service and further elevate the develop- platform for small and medium- ment level and global market sized businesses specializing in competence of the biomedical biomedical R&D in Zhangjiang. industry chain, the city govern- It will also help attract major ment said. innovations to be commercial- They will also help gather high- ized in Shanghai to form regional quality resources from home and advantages. abroad and forge a world-class “The inauguration of the new industry cluster in Shanghai, industry base not only echoes where biomedicine is one of the with Shanghai’s endeavor to city’s three major strategic pillar build the city into an internation- industries, said the government. al scientific innovation hub but Innovative drugs, biological also benefits the city in promot- agents, high-end medical devices ing optimization and upgrading and new industrial service mod- of its industrial structure and cul- els will be the focus of forward- tivating a new impetus for suc- looking projects. cess,” said the company. A technician from SenseTime tests an AI-powered vehicle in Shanghai on Sept 2. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY At the heart of “pharmacy val- An industrial base dedicated to ley” — located in Zhangjiang Sci- precision medicines with a total ence City in Pudong New Area — investment of 1.15 billion yuan by is Shanghai Pharma, China’s larg- Obio Technology (Shanghai) est importer of pharmaceuticals Corp Ltd — a high-tech enter- and medical devices, which inau- prise specializing in basic life sci- gurated an industrial base on Jan 4. ences research, gene therapy China’s financial hub wants Total planned investment of drug incubation and clinical- the base, which covers an area of grade recombinant viruses — 150,000 square meters, is nearly also recently launched construc- 8 billion yuan ($1.24 billion), and tion at a biomedical industrial its first phase investment may park in Lingang New Area at to be global AI powerhouse reach 2.3 billion yuan. Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. According to the company’s After completion, the project plan, the base will strive to can provide production work- New generation supercomputing center to offer highly customized integrated solution become an incubation and trans- shops for gene vectors, including formation center with most com- various kinds of viruses, and aims plete layout and most advanced to better meet market demand By HE WEI in Shanghai permit in September to roofing com- ing on SenseTime’s multiple years of technologies in the domestic bio- for the development of gene ther- [email protected] pletion in December. scientific research and practical pro- medical sector. apy drugs as well as other cell Xu Li, co-founder and CEO of jects, the city-level AI computing “Therapeutic antibodies and therapy drugs at home and Shanghai is expected to host an SenseTime said: “The infrastructure We hope that platform aims to integrate large- vaccines, cell therapies and gene abroad. artificial intelligence-backed super project is in line with SenseTime’s scale AI computing power, industri- therapies will be the main areas The industrial base, covering computing platform by next year as strategy to build a best-in-class arti- SenseTime will al-grade AI algorithms and open AI of the base’s focus,” said Shanghai an area of 33,000 sq m and con- the city pushes to use the technology ficial intelligence infrastructure for be able to services. Pharma, a Fortune 500 enter- taining a construction area of for industry empowerment and all industries. We hope that Sense- Shanghai has spared no efforts in prise, in a news release. roughly 80,000 sq m, will include urban management. Time will be able to empower vari- empower various its ambitions to become a budding The public service platform for multiple quality inspection work- The New Generation Supercom- ous industries and drive growth of industries and global AI powerhouse. For instance, innovative incubation at the base shops, production workshops, puting Center located in Lingang the global economy, society and a directive for Lingang Special Area will exceed 50,000 sq m, the produc- warehouses, public works and Special Area at Shanghai’s Pilot Free humanity toward a better tomor- drive growth of decreed in December that AI and tion area for antibodies will reach other auxiliary facilities. Its Trade Zone has recently completed row.” the global related industries should hit 90 bil- 100,000 sq m and the scale of biore- annual output value is expected construction, just half a year since The company said the newly-com- lion yuan by the end of the 14th Five- actors will reach 120,000 liters. to reach around 1.3 billion yuan. the grand project kicked off. pleted center is expected to “signifi- economy, society Year Plan period (2021-25). The accelerated construction cantly improve supercomputing and humanity Many domestic and international speed was made possible due to power and the iteration efficiency of AI powerhouses have flocked to set streamlined procedures by the Lin- its proprietary algorithms”. toward a better up shop in the metropolis. Last year gang Administrative Committee, To be more specific, the comput- tomorrow.” witnessed the launch of a dedicated which utilizes a joint online portal ing power of the platform can sup- AI Tower hosting 20 leading AI firms for civic affairs to handle enterprise port simultaneous access to 8.5 Xu Li, co-founder and on the West Bund waterfront in CEO of SenseTime affairs in an efficient manner. million video channels. It also says it Xuhui district, an AI hub in the city. SenseTime, the company behind will be able to process videos equiva- They include industry giants such the 5.6 billion yuan ($867 million) lent to 23,600 years in a single day. as Microsoft, Huawei and Alibaba as project, stands to benefit from this The new 58,000-square-meter well as leading startups like United simplified approach, according to facility will also create a supercom- Imaging and Yitu. Pan Mingwei, who oversees the puting platform based on a deep- The city’s efforts to boost its AI project at SenseTime. learning framework developed by 5.6 prominence are also reflected in the “Government officials in Shang- SenseTime, which will offer highly billion yuan World AI Conference, which was hai have put their heart and soul customized, integrated and indus- total investment on launched in 2018. Summoning AI into the entire process of the try-leading AI solutions to custom- the new generation luminaries from Nobel laureates to project,” Pan said. He added that ers from various industries. supercomputing tech business owners like Elon accelerated paces are being wit- Since 2014, SenseTime has center in Shanghai Musk, the event has since developed nessed throughout the entire proc- deployed AI computing platforms in into an influential platform for AI ess, from project commencement in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong cooperation and exchanges, as well A visitor (right) collects materials from the exhibition booth of July and obtaining a construction Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. Draw- as a catalyst for the city’s AI industry. Shanghai Pharma. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Steelmaker transforms production base into tech innovation park By WANG YING in Shanghai tion and development of Wusong reach 5.6 million sq m by 2025. [email protected] innovation city, which is positioned The steel mill looks to generate as one of Shanghai’s key technologi- more than 100 billion yuan in reve- China Baowu Steel Group cal innovation zones. nue from its industries situated in launched 10 major projects in late The innovation city is designed its Wusong Park in the future, December in Baowu Wusong Park to promote and support techno- reported ThePaper.cn. in Shanghai’s Baoshan district, with logical innovation, financial servi- The technologically innovative total investment exceeding 13 bil- ces, industrialization of projects in Wusong Park are the lion yuan ($2.01 billion). The pro- institutional achievements as well latest efforts by China Baowu in its jects are part of the group’s efforts to as serve as a platform for State- pursuit to become a truly global transform a steel production base owned industry upgrades, said steel industry leader with technol- into a modern technological innova- Chen Jie, Party secretary of Bao- ogy, profitability and scale being tion park, said its chairman. shan district. the three pillars. “This area used to be a steel mill The municipal government of In December, China Baowu with a history that can be traced Shanghai and China Baowu initi- announced its annual output back to the 1930s.