In late November, the construction of a satellite industrial base kicked off at the Lingang
Songjiang Sci-tech City in Songjiang district, Shanghai. Facilities including a digital satellite
manufacturing plant and an in-orbit satellite monitoring, operating and control center are
expected to be built during the first phase of the project.
The digital satellite manufacturing plant, with a designed annual production capacity of 300
satellites, is scheduled to be put into operation in 2023.
The project is aimed at helping form an innovative application ecosystem for the satellite
Internet industry that will enjoy an industrial scale of over 20 billion yuan ($3.14 billion) by
2025.
Over the past five years or so, Songjiang has witnessed remarkable achievements in high-
quality development. During China’s 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), the district’s
GDP registered an average annual growth rate of 10.2 percent; in the first nine months of this
year, its GDP rose 8.8 percent year on year. The district’s fiscal revenue has increased for 70
consecutive months, and the total amount of its fiscal revenue has ranked top among all
districts of Shanghai.
In fact, just six years ago, the district located in the southwest suburb of Shanghai lagged
behind most of the districts in the city in terms of core and leading indicators, including the
growth rate of fiscal revenue. At that time, finding a new development path was an important
priority of the district.
Songjiang district has geographical advantages, though it’s a suburban area of Shanghai. It is
the starting point of the Shanghai section of the G60 Shanghai-Kunming Expressway that
connects Shanghai and Kunming, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province. 40 km of the
expressway is in Songjiang district, which enjoys a natural connection with cities along the
route, including Jiaxing in east China’s Zhejiang province.
Inspired by foreign countries’ experience of building advanced manufacturing industrial belts
along transportation arteries, Songjiang laid emphasis on innovation in its development plan
for the period from 2016 to 2020 and came up with the idea of building along the G60
expressway a science and technology innovation corridor.
Since 2016, the corridor has been extended from Songjiang all the way to nine cities (or
districts) in the Yangtze River Delta region, becoming a major engine for the high-quality
development of the region.
To boost the development of advanced manufacturing, Songjiang has converted about 67
hectares of land for real estate development into land for industrial purposes. At the same
time, through the rectification of illegal land use and other measures, the district has managed
to provide nearly 7 square kilometers of land for the innovation corridor.
At a factory of Huadao Biopharma, a biomedical company in Shanghai Songjiang Economic
and Technological Development Zone, rows of automated cell culture machines are running
in full gear.
“Songjiang has provided great support for us in many aspects of our development,” said Yu
Xuejun, chairman of the company, adding that after learning that the company’s leased plant
was troubled by power shortage, relevant local authorities specially expanded the capacity of
nearby power facilities for the company.
Within merely five years, a vast array of major projects worth ten billion yuan or more and
leading enterprises have put down roots in the Songjiang section of the science and
technology innovation corridor along the G60 expressway, ushering in a stage of fast
development of advanced manufacturing.
Configuring innovation chain based on industrial chains and promoting the integrated
development of innovation and industrial chains has been an important path of Songjiang’s
innovation-driven development. So far, it has cultivated a strategic emerging industrial cluster
involving biomedicine and AI.
A total of 842 AI enterprises, including CSG and KUKA, have flocked to the industrial
cluster. Chinese tech giant Tencent’s AI supercomputing center in Songjiang, which boasts
world-class capabilities, is believed to grow into the digital foundation for the development of
the Yangtze River Delta region.
In the field of new energy sources, Songjiang has gathered about 302 companies including
BYD and Shanghai Baolong Automotive Corporation.
Such configuration has well sustained Songjiang’s high-quality development. The district’s
tax revenue has continued to grow, to which its industry has contributed the most. In 2020, the
absolute amount of industrial fixed asset investment in Songjiang increased at an average
annual rate of 35.2 percent.
So far, Songjiang has 1,488 industrial enterprises above designated size, which generate a
combined annual output value of 407.2 billion yuan, making Songjiang the second-highest
ranked district in Shanghai.
The output value of strategic emerging industries now accounts for 63.1 percent of the
district’s total, and the proportion of tax revenue from manufacturing in the district’s total tax
revenue has risen significantly.
In an effort to make its innovation chain independent and controllable and guarantee that key
and core technologies of advanced manufacturing are firmly held in its own hands, Songjiang
has built a number of national laboratories and gathered scientists with leadership qualities.
Major research platforms and institutes, including the G60 brain intelligence science and
technology innovation base, Shanghai low carbon technology research institute, and world’s
top digital laboratories like Tencent Keen Security Lab and Tencent YouTu Lab, have been
built in Songjiang.
