context: As the PRC enters the drafting phase of the national 15th 5-year plan, provincial and municipal governments are formulating their own plans to align local development with national priorities, particularly in strategic emerging and future industries. In recent years, Shanghai has consistently positioned itself around the 'five centres' framework—international economic, financial, trade, shipping and scitech innovation hubs—while concentrating industrial policy on three core sectors: integrated circuits, biomedicine and AI, which together had reached a combined scale of around C¥1.8 tn by 2024. This is reinforced through targeted planning and funding tools, including large-scale municipal funds and cluster-oriented policies, alongside early deployment in frontier areas such as quantum technology, bio-manufacturing and advanced communications.
Shanghai released its municipal 15th 5-year plan proposal, on 19 January 2026, specifying
- by 2035, Shanghai aims to realise a comprehensive upgrade of its 'five centres': international economic, financial, trade, shipping and scitech innovation centres
- key development indicators to reach global leading levels
- GDP per capita to double compared with 2020
- building world-class high-end industrial clusters
- three leading industries
- upgrading integrated circuit equipment capability, manufacturing standards and design capacity
- driving full value-chain breakthroughs and scale expansion
- strengthening R&D in innovative pharmaceuticals and medical devices
- advancing full-stack AI innovation
- upgrading integrated circuit equipment capability, manufacturing standards and design capacity
- accelerating agile deployment in
- quantum technology
- brain–computer interfaces
- controllable nuclear fusion
- bio-manufacturing
- sixth-generation mobile communications
- three leading industries
Zeng Gang 曾刚 East China Normal University Urban Development Institute director said the proposal sets out a clearly tiered roadmap for Shanghai’s development over the next five years
- it marks a shift
- from scale-driven expansion to high-quality growth and structural optimisation
- not only at the industrial and economic level but also in higher household income levels
- for emerging industries, Shanghai’s priority is
- not single technological breakthroughs but building long-term, sustainable industrial ecosystems
- to maintain or strengthen global leadership
- to take the lead in key technological breakthroughs
- to form industrial scale and head-cluster effects
- implementing a 'Shanghai-based R&D, peripheral commercialisation' model
- retaining breakthroughs in critical fields within Shanghai
- assigning incremental and general innovation to surrounding cities
- emerging and future industries are characterised by
- high uncertainty
- high R&D intensity
- high growth potential
Zeng also noted that emerging and future industries are characterised by high uncertainty, heavy R&D investment and strong growth potential, making them particularly dependent in early stages on patient capital, venture capital and long-term capital. Accordingly, Shanghai also proposes a parallel upgrade of its international financial centre over the next five years to build a financial support system aligned with world-class high-end industrial clusters.