Industrial investment in Shanghai increased by 17.7 percent in 2018, the highest growth rate in a decade, according to official data recently released by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology.

Shanghai has been giving full play to the high-quality development of its manufacturing industry. The annual growth rate of the investment in manufacturing reached 14.8 percent last year, contributing to the sustainable development of the city’s real economy.

Investment in the six key manufacturing industries of Shanghai (electronic information products, automobile, petrochemical and fine chemicals, fine steel, household appliances and biological medicine) grew by 20.3 percent year-on-year, among which electronic information products manufacturing saw the most rapid annual growth rate of 58.4 percent.

A principal of the commission said that over the past year, the investment in industrial projects with a total investment of more than 100 million yuan ($14,848 million) in Shanghai increased by 19.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 80.9 percent of the total industrial investment.

The electronic information product manufacturing industry sees the city's fastest investment growth in 2018, up to 58.4 percent. [Photo/IC]

Among them, projects with total investments of over 10 billion yuan mainly came from the integrated circuits (IC) and new-type display sectors in the electronic information industry.

Another characteristic of Shanghai's industrial investment is the increasing investment in emerging industries.

Due to the application and promotion of new technologies, such as chip technology, sensor technology, big data, biotechnology and new energy, Shanghai’s emerging industries have grown exponentially.  

Additionally, the related technologies and products are applied in the traditional industries, such as automobile and biological medicine, becoming the driving force of Shanghai’s industrial transformation and upgrading.

For example, the structure of the biological medicine industry has been constantly optimized, and the investment in the most cutting-edge fields, including gene drugs and medical diagnostic equipment has increased significantly. Large projects of leading enterprises such as Junshi Biosciences, King-cell Biotechnology and United Imaging have emerged.

In the field of the new energy vehicle industry, the investment increased by 42.8% year-on-year in 2018, and it is hoped that the investment in the industry will usher in a golden period.

Moreover, the private economic investment, which represents the vitality of the market economy, saw a year-on-year growth of 19.9 percent, with the growth rate picking up significantly. The main projects have gradually shifted from labor-intensive industries to capital and technology-intensive industries.