Experts: Shanghai Actively Responds to Global Trends and Needs to Integrate and Enhance These Five Core Competencies

How can the fifth-generation port empower the specialized development of international shipping centers? How can research universities play the role of “anchor institutions” as sources of innovation to contribute to the construction of Shanghai as an international science and technology innovation center?

On December 7, a seminar on accelerating the construction of the “Five Centers” in Shanghai was held in the city. The seminar was guided by the Office of the Leading Group for Accelerating the Construction of the “Five Centers” in Shanghai and co-hosted by the Shanghai Development and Reform Research Institute and the Shanghai headquarters of the China Economic Information Service.

Zhang Zhongwei, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission and Director of the Shanghai Development and Reform Research Institute, stated in his speech that the construction of the “Five Centers” faces new requirements for “strengthening links, strengthening sources, strengthening coordination, and strengthening driving forces.” “Strengthening links” means responding to challenges such as “decoupling and supply chain disruptions” with high levels of openness and market engagement, deeply connecting with the global landscape, and enhancing global resource allocation capabilities. “Strengthening sources” involves proactively addressing new trends in global technological innovation competition and enhancing the capacity for innovation within global industrial, value, and innovation chains. “Strengthening coordination” requires not only enhancing the functional synergy of the “Five Centers” to form a supportive and interconnected “functional aggregate,” but also strengthening institutional coordination to meet the new demands of emerging productive forces. “Strengthening driving forces” means focusing on the overall situation and enhancing the radiating effect on the development of the Yangtze River Delta region.

In the keynote speech, Peng Wensheng, Chief Economist of China International Capital Corporation and President of the CICC Research Institute, emphasized that to resolve vertical “bottleneck” issues and horizontal decentralization pressures, Shanghai must leverage its scale advantages to create agglomeration and diffusion effects, promote technological innovation, and foster the integration of industry and innovation, while enhancing the attraction of global talent and elements such as technology and finance. He advocated for promoting cooperation in green industries between China and Europe, empowering the development of the real economy based on the construction of Shanghai as an international financial center.

Zhang Yong, Deputy General Manager of China Ocean Shipping Group, stated in his keynote speech that Shanghai should take the construction of a fifth-generation international shipping hub as a starting point and use the development of high-end shipping services as a breakthrough to promote the specialized development of the international shipping center from three dimensions: talent, data, and ecology. The so-called fifth-generation port is characterized by digital intelligence and green low-carbon features, supported by new productive forces, and relies on free trade ports (zones) as key infrastructure and cross-regional economic geographical hubs of systemic importance. Its most prominent feature is the establishment of an end-to-end “shipping + port + logistics” interconnected network and a new integrated ecosystem of port and shipping trade centered around the port.

Zheng Degao, Deputy Director of the China Urban Planning and Design Institute, noted that global cities are reshaping their development goals amid conflicting circumstances. The current supply chain faces a balance between efficiency and resilience, resource reorganization and innovation empowerment, as well as globalization and regionalization. In this context, Shanghai needs to actively respond to global trends and enhance five core capabilities: “innovation drive, manufacturing strength, logistics capacity, service capability, and control power of leading enterprises.” The focus should be on cultivating leading enterprises, activating innovation drives, and enhancing manufacturing strength, logistics capacity, and service capabilities to accelerate the construction of a resilient supply chain hub city.

Jiang Ge, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice President of ShanghaiTech University, cited the successful collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Kendall Square in establishing “the most innovative square mile in the world” as a typical case that reflects the “anchoring +” effect of universities and research institutions in the rise of technology innovation zones. The Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France, known as “Europe’s Silicon Valley,” has also achieved this due to its numerous high-level universities and higher education institutions, as well as the concentration of world-class large scientific facilities, forming a rare “cluster of large scientific facilities” that continuously brings research talent and innovative thinking to the city, shaping its brand as a “city of technology.” He stated, “The elements that constitute a science and technology innovation center should include research universities, large scientific facilities, research hospitals, research institutions, high-tech enterprises, venture capital funds, active high-tech startups, incubators, talent, and production capacity primarily based on factories. The technological achievements from laboratories should ultimately encourage patent conversion to achieve an industrial closed loop, thus all elements in each link are indispensable.” He emphasized that research universities like ShanghaiTech University should play the role of “anchor institutions” as sources of innovation to contribute to the construction of Shanghai as an international science and technology innovation center.

At the event, the Shanghai Development and Reform Research Institute led the signing of a research cooperation agreement for the “Five Centers” construction think tank consortium with eight think tanks, including the Shanghai Economic Information Center, the Shanghai Economic and Information Development Research Center, the Shanghai Financial Stability Development Research Center, the Shanghai Business Development Research Center, the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation Center, the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, the Shanghai Transportation Development Research Center, and the Shanghai Institute of Scientific Research. They advocated for the joint construction of a new type of open research think tank. Additionally, the Shanghai Development and Reform Research Institute signed a strategic cooperation agreement with six entities, including the Shanghai headquarters of the China Economic Information Service, the Research and Consulting Center/Technology Center of China Ocean Shipping Group, China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd., Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co., Ltd., the National Technology Innovation Center of the Yangtze River Delta, and the Shanghai National Accounting Institute, to strengthen in-depth cooperation in think tank research, platform construction, resource sharing, and talent cultivation.