Shanghai's Pudong New Area starts key industry projects

SHANGHAI - A batch of 146 science and technology industry and supporting projects were signed or started construction on Wednesday in Shanghai's Pudong New Area.

With a total investment of about 86.7 billion yuan ($12.9 billion), these projects cover such sectors as biomedicine, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, and automobile manufacturing.

Of the projects, the construction of the global headquarters park of SmartSens Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd, a CMOS image-sensor chip design company, has a total investment of 850 million yuan.

The project will focus on high-performance imaging technology innovation and research and development, and develop CMOS image-sensor chip products, said Richard Xu, founder of SmartSens. Upon completion, the park's overall business scale will exceed 10 billion yuan, Xu said.

In recent years, Pudong has been promoting the development of high-tech industries and has formed a modern industrial system led by integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and new-energy vehicles.

In 2022, the total industrial output value of major enterprises in Pudong reached nearly 1.34 trillion yuan, up 4 percent year-on-year, accounting for 33.1 percent of Shanghai's total.

Since being designated a new area in 1990, Pudong has become a popular destination for investors, innovators, and policy pilots.