Rustam Minnikhanov visits hi-tech zone in Shanghai

On May 20, during his working trip to China, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov visited the special economic zone in Shanghai.

To the point, the Zhangjiang special economic zone for developing new and hi-tech technologies was established in 1992 in the center of Pudong district of Shanghai. With an area of 79.7 sq km, there are 320,000 people, working in the technology park. In 2013, the proceeds of resident companies amounted to 480 billion yuan (80 billion US dollars).

With IT-technologies being the largest area of focus in the park, half of investments into production of integrated circuits in Shanghai and half of the profits of the industry belong to Zhangjiang.

Pharmaceuticals is the second area of business in the park, with the proceeds of pharmaceutical companies amounted to 40.7 billion yuan (6.6 billion dollars) in 2013. The proceeds of the "creative" industry related to multimedia entertainment made 25 billion yuan in 2013.

The “green” energy technologies are prospective area of the zone development. Besides, the research and development center of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China COMAC is located in Zhangjiang.

According to representatives of the zone, the relatively high cost of living in Shanghai and high level of wages makes the SEZ management provide additional benefits to resident companies. Thus, the rent for start-up companies is partially subsidized by the Chinese government.

Rustam Minnikhanov visited Shanghai Pudong software-park located in the Zhangjiang special economic zone. With an area of 580,000 square meters, the technopark employs 38,000 workers of IT companies. Its proceeds made 55.2 billion yuan ( 9.2 billion dollars)
in 2013.

Such well-known electronics manufacturers as HTC, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments have their development center and manufacturing facilities in the industrial park.

Tatarstan President said IT-city Innopolis is being establish in Tatarstan and the Zhangjiang zone experience would be very useful for the republic. "We would like to cooperate with you. I think we should sign a relevant agreement and send our specialists here,” Rustam Minnikhanov concluded.