SHENZHEN aims to become a modern and international city of innovators by 2025, serving as a major engine for the sci-tech innovation center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for the promotion of scientific and technological innovation unveiled Wednesday.

The city will ramp up its efforts to become a pinnacle of technology and industrial innovation with global influence, as per the five-year plan released by the city’s science, technology and innovation commission.

To achieve these goals, the city pledges to build four major science and technology platforms, namely Guangming Science City, the Shenzhen section of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation Zone for Technology and Innovation in the Lok Ma Chau Loop area, Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone and Xili Lake International Science and Education City. Advanced lab systems, high-level research institutes, high-quality research-type universities and world-class tech companies will also be established for the promotion of innovation.

By 2025, Shenzhen’s total spending on research and development will account for 5.5 to 6 percent of the city’s GDP, while its expenditure on basic research will take up 5.5 to 6 percent of the total R&D input. The number of high-value patents will reach 108 pieces per 10,000 people and the total output value of the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park will reach 1.1 trillion yuan (US$173 billion). The city will boast more than 22,000 national-level high-tech companies by 2025, according to the plan.

The city will focus on the development of seven strategic emerging industries and eight future industries including new-generation electronic information, internet and communication, semiconductor and integrated circuits, ultra-high-definition video displays, and intelligent terminals. It will try to make technology breakthroughs in new-type network technologies, chip design and manufacturing, new display technologies, and software and hardware of intelligent terminals. In low-carbon sectors, the city will carry out more technological research in solar energy, hydrogen and nuclear energy, and carbon peak and carbon neutrality technologies.

The plan specifies that the city will strengthen research, application and industrialization in future industries such as synthetic biology, blockchain, cell and genomics, aerospace technologies, neuroscience and quantum information, and create new growth points.

The plan also proposes to build 11 innovation-driven clusters in the Shenzhen Bay, Pingshan, Bao’an, Banxuegang-Guanlan and Jiulongshan-Fumin zones of the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park.    (Han Ximin)