District to prioritize digital transformation and growth

Qingpu district will promote development of digital economy in its newest round of upgrades to support Shanghai's international digital hub construction.

In the next five years, Qingpu will fully promote digital transformation in fields such as industrial development, daily life and urban management, authorities said.

In terms of industrial development, the digital economy has been made a top priority. Qingpu will build itself into a digital hub in the Yangtze River Delta region, and accelerate construction of a "digital artery" along the G50 expressway. A host of digital and information industry platforms and clusters, such as Beidou West Hongqiao Base, Shixi Software Information Park and Huawei Research and Development Center, have been built along this east-west expressway.

A landmark project is the Shanghai Caohejing Zhaoxiang Business Park. With a total investment of 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion), the business park focuses on sectors such as chipmaking, new materials and smart robots.

Another high-profile industrial park is the Shixi Software Park, which has a core area spanning 1.5 square kilometers. Shixi has set goals to cover sectors such as cloud computing, industrial software, big data, integrated circuits and smart chips.

Earlier this year, Shanghai announced it would work toward becoming an international digital economy hub by 2025. A guideline, which identified the development objectives, was released to support the goal.

In recent years, the digital economy has seen a fast pace of growth in Shanghai, which has contributed to more than a half of the city's gross domestic product, according to local officials.

Zhangjiang in the Pudong New Area, which has long taken the lead in developing Shanghai's digital economy, reported outstanding results in recent years.

Under the national strategies of further opening-up and integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta area, the Qingpu digital economy hub is expected to take off.

The digital industry hubs in Qingpu and Zhangjiang will drive Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region to a new high, industry experts said.