Outline: Strategic Positioning Industrial Layout Spatial Layout Policy System Innovation Ecosystem Achievements and Challenges
The Lingang New Area Lake Industrial Park, as a key link in the “two belts, one corridor, and multiple clusters” spatial pattern of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area, is the core carrier for promoting the deep integration of open innovation and industrial clusters.This circular industrial belt, covering approximately 15,250 acres, is accelerating the formation of a world-class industrial cluster with international competitiveness by integrating global innovation resources and building an open industrial ecosystem. Its strategic value lies not only in connecting the frontier industrial agglomeration areas with international innovation collaboration zones but also in becoming a “strategic growth pole” for Shanghai’s construction of a global science and technology innovation center through deep coupling of institutional innovation and industrial policies. As the core engine of the development and construction of the Lingang New Area, the Lake Industrial Park has entered an accelerated construction phase since the unveiling of the new area in 2019. After six years of development, it has initially established an industrial system framework centered on integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and biomedicine. By 2025, with the basic establishment of the main functions of the modernized new city, the park has attracted nearly 40,000 enterprises, with a significant increase in the number of enterprises with registered capital exceeding ten million. The business services and software information service industries have formed industrial pillars with shares of 21.5% and 13.3%, respectively, laying a solid foundation for achieving the grand goal of “recreating a Pudong.”
1. Strategic Positioning
Since its establishment in 2019, the Lingang New Area has been tasked with the national strategic mission of creating “five important” roles, namely becoming:
※ An important base for gathering talents from home and abroad to carry out international innovation collaboration
※ An important hub for coordinating the development of onshore and offshore businesses
※ An important springboard for enterprises to go global and grow
※ An important channel for better utilizing two markets and two types of resources
※ An important testing ground for participating in international economic governance
The Lake Industrial Park, as the core carrier of the new area’s development and construction, undertakes a dual functional role under this strategic framework: it is both a source of technological innovation driving breakthroughs in key core technologies and a core area for cultivating world-class industrial clusters. At the policy level, its establishment stems from the national strategic demand for deepening reforms in the free trade zone, aiming to break down barriers to the flow of factors through institutional innovation and explore new paths for the development of an open economy nationwide. The Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and government have proposed the goal of “recreating a Pudong,” clearly requiring the Lingang New Area to achieve a regional GDP exceeding one trillion by 2035. The Lake Industrial Park is becoming the core growth pole for achieving this goal by constructing a full-process innovation ecosystem of “basic research + technological breakthroughs + industrialization of results + technology finance + talent support.” The park focuses on cutting-edge industries such as integrated circuits and artificial intelligence, directly serving the national strategy of technological self-reliance and strength, forming breakthrough potential in “bottleneck” areas such as EDA tool development and large model training, providing key support for the new area to build an open industrial system.
The Lake Industrial Park is located in the core area of Nanhui New Town in Pudong New District, and its unique circular spatial form creates a natural advantage for industrial agglomeration. This industrial belt, covering approximately 15,250 acres, extends north to Huanhu Er Road and south to Huanhu Yi Road, forming a spatial response of “one core, one belt” with the core area of Dishui Lake, enjoying the convenience of supporting services in the new city center while maintaining the independent space required for industrial development. In terms of location, the park is quickly connected to Pudong International Airport and Yangshan Deep Water Port via the Lianggang Avenue, allowing access to the two major international hubs within 15 minutes. This “sea, land, air, and rail” three-dimensional transportation network provides inherent conditions for developing airport economy and cross-border trade.
In terms of industry, the park has formed an industrial structure supported by business services and software information technology, with the two fields accounting for 21.5% and 13.3%, respectively. Professional service agencies such as legal services and intellectual property agencies cluster together, providing comprehensive support for the development of high-end industries.
As of the latest statistics, the park has registered a total of 39,320 enterprises, showing a dual-track development characteristic of “total expansion and quality improvement.” Among the key enterprise groups, a number of leading enterprises with registered capital exceeding ten million, such as the mixed ownership reform fund of Chinese state-owned enterprises, have successively settled in, driving the formation of an industrial echelon of “leading enterprises leading, small and medium-sized enterprises collaborating,” laying a solid market foundation for the subsequent development of the “7+5+4” industrial system.
2. Industrial Layout
(1) The “7+5+4” World-Class Industrial System Framework
The Lake Industrial Park is centered around the “7+5+4” industrial system framework, constructing a multi-dimensional collaborative development industrial ecosystem. In this system,
※ 7 major cutting-edge industries—constituting the “hard core support” of technological innovation, covering integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, civil aviation, intelligent connected vehicles, green low-carbon, and high-end equipment;
※ 5 major modern service industries—forming the “soft guarantee” for industrial upgrading, including cross-border finance, international logistics, professional services, high-end commerce, and cultural creativity;
※ 4 major open innovation business formats—creating a “testing ground” for institutional breakthroughs, including offshore economy, intelligent economy, headquarters economy, and blue economy.
The three are interconnected through a chain reaction of “technological breakthroughs—service empowerment—business format innovation,” achieving full-cycle coverage from technology research and development to market application.
As the core carrier for the implementation of this system, the Lake Industrial Park focuses on three major fields: integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and biomedicine, promoting the deep integration of the industrial chain and innovation chain through precise policies of “one industry, one plan, one fund.” At the policy level, the “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Cutting-Edge Industries in the Lingang New Area” issued by Shanghai clearly positions the Lake area as an “industrial innovation factor agglomeration area,” guiding various resources to tilt towards key industries through land guarantees, financial support, and other combined measures. The construction of characteristic carriers such as Dongfang Chip Port and Life Blue Bay in the park is gradually forming an industrial division of labor pattern of “R&D in the Lake, manufacturing nearby, and services globally,” providing spatial support for the new area to build a world-class industrial cluster.
(2) Cutting-Edge Industrial Clusters: Breakthrough Layout in Hard Technology
The integrated circuit industry in the Lake Industrial Park presents a full-chain development trend of “design—manufacturing—packaging and testing.” The park focuses on key links such as EDA tool development and core components of photolithography machines, establishing a special fund of 5 billion yuan to provide up to 40% subsidies for enterprises’ R&D investments, with a single project support cap of 50 million yuan. Dongfang Chip Port, as the core carrier, has attracted leading equipment enterprises such as Zhongwei Company and Shengmei Shanghai, forming a technology R&D cluster covering processes from 28nm to 3nm. The artificial intelligence field focuses on cross-border transmission of large model training data and localization of robot controllers, relying on the Information Flying Fish Global Digital Economy Innovation Island to build a three-in-one industrial ecosystem of “algorithms—data—computing power.” At the policy level, a subsidy policy of 10% on terminal product sales is implemented, promoting the landing and transformation of a number of landmark achievements such as SenseCore’s large device and Cambricon’s SiYuan chip. The biomedicine industry takes innovative drug international certification and medical device bonded trial use as breakthroughs, with the Life Blue Bay Industrial Park establishing the first “separation of research and application” regulatory pilot in China, providing a one-time reward of 20 million yuan for innovative drugs certified in China, the US, and Europe, with enterprises such as Fosun Kite and WuXi AppTec achieving commercial production of CAR-T cell therapy products here. In addition, the civil aviation field relies on the China Commercial Aircraft Corporation’s final assembly base, laying out supporting industries such as avionics systems and composite materials in the Lake area, forming a good trend of “whole machine driving, cluster development.”
|
Industry Field |
Key Development Direction |
Representative Support Policies |
Industry Carrier Examples |
|
Integrated Circuits |
EDA tool development, core components of photolithography machines |
R&D expenses40% subsidy (up to 50 million yuan) |
Dongfang Chip Port |
|
Artificial Intelligence |
Cross-border transmission of large model training data, robot controllers |
10% subsidy on terminal product sales |
Information Flying Fish Global Digital Economy Innovation Island |
|
Biomedicine |
International certification of innovative drugs, bonded trial use of medical devices |
20 million yuan reward for innovative drugs certified in China, the US, and Europe |
Life Blue Bay |
(3) Open Innovation Economic Formats: Practices of Offshore Economy and Intelligent Economy
The offshore economy has achieved breakthrough development in the Lake Industrial Park, relying on the “Offshore Pass” digital service platform. The park has completed over 2,000 offshore transfer trading transactions, with a transaction volume exceeding 80 billion yuan. The policy of exempting stamp duty in the offshore trade sector has reduced transaction costs for enterprises by 15%-20%, attracting global commodity traders such as Trafigura and Glencore to establish regional headquarters here. In the intelligent economy field, 30 industrial internet standard laboratories have been established, covering key industries such as automotive manufacturing and high-end equipment, among which the “intelligent factory operating system” jointly created with Huawei has been applied in Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, improving production efficiency by 35%. In terms of headquarters economy, the park has attracted 28 regional headquarters of multinational companies, with 8 selected for Shanghai’s “Multinational Company Regional Headquarters Empowerment Program,” promoting the enhancement of enterprises’ global resource allocation capabilities through customized services of “one headquarters, one policy package.” The blue economy field relies on the Lingang Marine High-Tech Industrial Base, forming characteristics in seawater rice planting and deep-sea equipment R&D, with the team of Yuan Longping cultivating salt-resistant rice varieties here, achieving a yield of over 800 kg per mu, and related technologies have been exported to Southeast Asia. These business format innovations, driven by institutional breakthroughs and technological innovations, are reshaping the functional positioning of the park in global resource allocation.
3. Spatial Layout
(1) The Overall Layout of “Two Belts, One Corridor, and Multiple Clusters”
The Lingang New Area’s 873 square kilometers of overall planning constructs a spatial development pattern of “two belts, one corridor, and multiple clusters,” with the Lake Industrial Park located at the geometric center and functional hub of this framework. The two-port development belt connects the logistics resources of Pudong Airport and Yangshan Port, while the bay development belt focuses on ecological protection and coastal economy. The emerging industrial innovation corridor runs north-south, connecting various industrial clusters, while the Lake area organically stitches together the three major spatial elements through a circular structure with a diameter of 5 kilometers. As the core section of the 119.5 square kilometer pilot area, the Lake Industrial Park undertakes the spatial carrier function of transforming from a “testing ground” to a “growth pole,” with its innovative practical experience radiating to other areas of the new area through the “multi-cluster” structure of the overall planning. The park connects frontier industrial agglomeration areas and international innovation collaboration zones through a three-dimensional transportation network, linking to the integrated circuit design park to the north, the biomedicine industrial park to the south, and the intelligent connected vehicle testing area to the west, forming a “half-hour industrial collaboration circle.” This spatial organization model breaks the physical boundaries of traditional industrial parks, achieving integrated construction of infrastructure such as underground utility tunnels and energy interconnection, allowing for the cross-cluster flow of innovative elements and providing flexible spatial support for industrial cluster development.
(2) Core Functional Area: A Practical Sample of Industry-City Integration
The International Innovation Collaboration Zone has completed the first phase of the world’s top scientists’ community, with 37 R&D building clusters, including quantum computing laboratories and brain science research institutes, now in operation, attracting research teams led by 54 academicians from home and abroad. The Science and Technology Headquarters Bay gathers regional headquarters of leading artificial intelligence companies such as SenseTime and Cambricon, with its unique “double helix” architectural form symbolizing the spiral relationship between industry and research. It has achieved a 90% occupancy rate.
The frontier industrial agglomeration area focuses on creating flexible manufacturing spaces for “R&D pilot tests + small batch production,” with the biomedicine CDMO platform in Life Blue Bay equipped with P3-level biosafety laboratories, meeting the full-process needs from target discovery to clinical trials, having served over 200 enterprises cumulatively.
The modern service industry open area has hosted 36 high-end events, including the World Artificial Intelligence Conference Lingang Branch, with its 18,000 square meter column-free exhibition hall featuring a variable partition design that can quickly switch between various scenarios such as meetings and exhibitions. The Glory Ring, as a landmark of the Lake area, connects 12 industrial communities through a 5.8-kilometer-long aerial corridor system, incorporating unmanned delivery channels and intelligent guidance systems to achieve seamless integration of “work—life—leisure.”
The 2.3 million square meter park belt along the lake integrates facilities such as 24-hour urban reading rooms and sports stations, forming a 15-minute living circle with surrounding talent communities. The occupancy rate of the delivered international talent apartments has reached 82%, with supporting bilingual schools and international hospitals meeting the living needs of high-end talents.
4. Policy Support System
(1) Taxation: The Core Tool for Reducing Enterprise Costs
The Lake Industrial Park has constructed a policy toolbox centered on preferential corporate income tax and offshore trade tax reductions, forming an internationally competitive tax lowland effect. For the four cutting-edge industries of integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and civil aviation, the park implements a 15% corporate income tax preferential rate for core link enterprises registered for less than 5 years, which reduces the tax burden by 40% compared to the ordinary 25% tax rate, but enterprises migrating from outside the area are not included in the preferential scope. The policy execution adopts a “self-assessment, declaration for enjoyment, and relevant materials kept for reference” approach, allowing enterprises to complete the enjoyment of preferential treatment during annual settlement without prior approval. In the offshore trade sector, a phased tax reduction policy is implemented, exempting stamp duty on relevant sales contracts for enterprises registered in Lingang conducting offshore transfer trading from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, reducing the average transaction cost for commodity trading enterprises by 12%-18%. The tax department has developed an “Offshore Pass” tax service module, allowing enterprises to submit transaction authenticity proof materials online, with an average processing time compressed to 3 working days.
(2) Industry-Specific Support: The “1+4” Policy Framework for Full-Chain Empowerment
The “1+4” industrial policy system, led by the “Several Policies for Accelerating the Development of Cutting-Edge Industries in the Lingang New Area,” is complemented by four special policies for integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and civil aviation, forming a support network covering the entire industrial lifecycle.
In the R&D phase, a “milestone” reward is implemented, with integrated circuit enterprises conducting EDA tool development receiving subsidies of 30%, 40%, and 50% for completing algorithm design, wafer testing, and commercial verification stages, with a cumulative support cap of 100 million yuan.
In the manufacturing sector, a “production ramp-up” subsidy is implemented, with enterprises achieving sales breakthroughs in artificial intelligence terminal products receiving a one-time reward of 10% of their first-year sales revenue, with a maximum annual subsidy of 20 million yuan per enterprise.
At the application end, a “scenario-driven” mechanism is constructed, with the biomedicine industry piloting a “separation of research and application” regulatory model, allowing innovative drugs to enter hospitals in the area for clinical trials after completing preclinical research in the Lake Industrial Park, with data used for simultaneous domestic and international applications.
The policy application adopts the “one-stop service” platform, with enterprises submitting materials online, undergoing joint review by multiple departments, and the average processing cycle shortened to 15 working days, speeding up by 60% compared to traditional models. This full-chain empowerment mechanism has shortened the average conversion cycle for park enterprises from technology R&D to market promotion by 18 months.
(3) Institutional Innovation: From “Testing Ground” to “Demonstration Window”
The Lake Industrial Park has cumulatively formed 87 institutional innovation achievements, of which 36 are national firsts. These breakthroughs focus on key areas such as factor flow and market access, upgrading from the park’s “testing ground” to a national reform “demonstration window.”
A pilot for cross-border data flow has constructed a “whitelist + negative list” management model, allowing artificial intelligence enterprises to achieve cross-border transmission of training data through a “data safe” mechanism, with the approval time compressed from 20 working days to 3 hours, improving efficiency by 97%.
The “one company, two locations” registration model allows multinational companies to establish global R&D centers in the park while simultaneously registering as independent legal entities and foreign company branches. This “dual-track” design allows enterprises to save an average of 40% in establishment costs.
Foreign exchange management innovations have introduced “fully electronic offshore transfer trading,” allowing enterprises to submit transaction documents through a blockchain platform, enabling banks to verify ownership certificates in real-time, improving foreign exchange settlement efficiency by 70%, and reducing the processing time for a single transaction from 2 days to 4 hours.
These institutional innovations are continuously optimized through “stress testing,” with 12 experiences already promoted to the national level by the State Council’s Free Trade Zone Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference, among which the “negative list for cross-border data flow” system provides an important reference sample for the market-oriented allocation reform of national data factors.
5. Innovation Ecosystem
(1) Industrial Fund Matrix: Building a Closed Loop of “Capital + Technology”
The Lake Industrial Park has constructed an industrial fund matrix with a total scale exceeding 80 billion yuan, achieving full-cycle coverage of innovative capital through a three-tier structure of “mother fund + direct investment fund + project fund.” The Shanghai Lingang Source Fund, as the core mother fund, has an initial scale of 20 billion yuan, focusing on basic research and original innovation fields, and has invested in 12 national-level laboratory achievement transformation projects. The artificial intelligence mother fund has a special allocation of 10 billion yuan, adopting a “dual GP” management model, jointly managed by the government guidance fund and SenseTime, focusing on supporting cutting-edge directions such as large model training and multimodal interaction. The fund strategy firmly implements the principles of “invest early, invest small, invest in hard technology,” with early-stage project investments accounting for 65%, of which seed and angel round investments exceed 30%, with the initial investment amount for a single project controlled within 5 million yuan, accompanying enterprise growth through a “small amount of multiple rounds” approach.
The “fund + base” linkage mechanism has produced significant incubation results. In the field of humanoid robots, the Zhiyuan Robot, led by the source fund, has completed B+ round financing, with its Walker X robot achieving 21 degrees of freedom full-body control and a core component localization rate of 92%, with related technologies iterated at the pilot base in the Lake Industrial Park. Fourth Paradigm, as a benchmark project of the artificial intelligence mother fund, has deployed its adaptive AI operating system in 30 manufacturing enterprises in the park, reducing the average failure rate of production equipment by 40%. The full lifecycle investment system covers the complete chain from concept validation to industrial expansion: during the seed period, it provides venue support through the “innovation workshop,” during the growth period, it connects with banks’ “investment-loan linkage” products, and during the mature period, it promotes enterprises to go public on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with 8 portfolio companies already entering the listing guidance stage. This deep coupling of capital and technology has shortened the conversion cycle of scientific research achievements in the park by 2.3 years compared to the city average.
(2) Industry-University-Research Collaborative Platform: Deep Linkage Between Universities and Parks
The Advanced Technology Research Institute of East China Normal University has pioneered a “non-profit organization + platform company” dual-track operation model, carrying research functions through the registration of a non-profit enterprise while establishing a market-oriented technology development company responsible for achievement transformation. The research institute focuses on subfields such as robot perception systems and chip design, establishing 28 university-enterprise joint laboratories, among which the intelligent computing joint laboratory co-built with Cambricon has developed low-power AI chips for edge computing, achieving an energy efficiency ratio of 3 TOPS/W. This institutional innovation breaks the constraints of the university research evaluation system, allowing researchers to participate in achievement transformation through equity participation, with individual shareholding ratios reaching up to 70%. Currently, 6 patented technologies have been industrialized through this model, generating cumulative economic benefits exceeding 1.5 billion yuan.
The Dishui Lake International Software College implements the “Excellent Engineer” training program, adopting a “3+1” joint training model with enterprises, where students spend their entire fourth academic year in park enterprises participating in actual project development. The college has co-established the “Intelligent Software Engineering Laboratory” with Microsoft Asia Research Institute, introducing industrial-grade code libraries and testing platforms, having trained 230 compound talents proficient in the entire DevOps process, with graduates’ average starting salary 28% higher than traditional computer science majors. In terms of financial support, the Huashi Chuangzhan Fund has established a 500 million yuan industry-university-research special fund, providing up to 3 million yuan in debt financing for entrepreneurial projects by university teachers, along with a supporting entrepreneurial mentor team providing technical commercialization guidance. This “research—education—industry” triad collaborative ecosystem has led to an annual growth of 45% in the number of university-enterprise cooperation projects in the Lake Industrial Park, with the technical contract transaction volume exceeding 8 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for 35% of the total in the Lingang New Area.
6. Achievements and Challenges
(1) Development Achievements in Stages
The Lake Industrial Park has achieved leapfrog growth in economic indicators through open innovation policies and industrial ecosystem construction. The average annual growth rate of the total industrial output value above designated size has reached 40.2% over three years, significantly higher than the average level of Shanghai during the same period, with the integrated circuit industry contributing over 30% of the growth. The output value of the Dongfang Chip Port park has exceeded 30 billion yuan annually. The total fixed asset investment in society has maintained a high-speed growth of 43%, with a focus on industrial carrier construction and R&D infrastructure, with the Life Blue Bay biomedicine industrial park having completed an investment of 18 billion yuan, building 2.3 million square meters of standard factories and supporting facilities. The average annual increase in local fiscal revenue has reached 59.2%, with the tax structure showing an “innovation-driven” characteristic, with the tax contribution of high-tech enterprises increasing to 65%, up 28 percentage points from the initial establishment of the new area. The cultivation of market entities has been significant, with over 64,000 new registered enterprises, an average of about 90 new enterprises established daily, forming an efficient development trend of “registration means commencement, commencement means production.”
The industrial cluster effect is accelerating, with the artificial intelligence field forming a complete chain of “algorithm R&D—chip manufacturing—application landing,” with SenseTime’s SenseCore large device processing over 10EB of data annually, and the Cambricon SiYuan 370 chip achieving mass production in the park, with computing power support capabilities radiating to the Yangtze River Delta region. The biomedicine industry has gathered 83 innovative drug R&D enterprises, with 8 first-class new drugs entering clinical phase III, accounting for 15% of the total in Shanghai during the same period. The accelerated layout of regional headquarters of multinational companies has led to the landing of 28 high-end projects such as Tesla’s energy storage R&D center and Microsoft’s Asia Research Institute Lingang branch, driving the formation of 12 industrial clusters worth over 10 billion yuan, laying a solid foundation for the new area’s construction of a world-class industrial highland.
(2) Challenges and Future
The Lake Industrial Park faces multiple challenges while developing rapidly. Key links in the industrial chain still have shortcomings, with the localization rate of EDA tools being less than 10%, and core components of photolithography machines relying on imports, restricting the autonomous and controllable development of the integrated circuit industry. There is a significant structural gap in high-end talent, with recruitment cycles for positions such as artificial intelligence algorithm engineers and biomedicine CMC experts averaging 45 days, 20 days longer than the Shanghai average. Intensified regional competition has led to fierce competition for factors, with similar parks in the Yangtze River Delta forming differentiated competition in land costs, tax incentives, and other aspects, diverting some quality project resources. Resource and environmental constraints are tightening, with the investment intensity per unit of land needing to increase from the current 5 million yuan/mu to over 8 million yuan/mu to meet future development needs.
Looking towards the goal of exceeding one trillion GDP by 2035, the park will implement three major enhancement projects.
The “Deep Investment Project in the Industrial Chain” focuses on “bottleneck” areas, establishing a 20 billion yuan tackling fund to support 20 key projects such as optical systems for photolithography machines and core reagents for gene sequencers, aiming to increase the localization rate to 30% within three years.
The “International Innovation Collaboration Project” aims to build a “dual-base model of offshore R&D + local transformation,” establishing overseas innovation centers in Silicon Valley and Boston, planning to attract 50 international joint laboratories within five years through “incubation in foreign lands.”
The “Policy Dividend Release Project” aims to align with the 2.0 version of the overall plan for the new area, striving to carry out pilot reforms such as expanding the “whitelist” for cross-border data flow and tax incentives for new-type R&D institutions, exploring mechanisms for cross-border social security continuity for international talents, and creating a more attractive innovation ecosystem. These measures will promote the transformation of the Lake Industrial Park from an “industrial agglomeration area” to an “innovation source,” providing core support for the new area’s leapfrog development.
______________________END______________________