Shanghai aims to boost the integration of its science and technology sector with the financial industry in a bid to enhance financial institutions' ability to serve the real economy and support the development of innovative startups, authorities said yesterday.

Zhang Quan, director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee, said that recent years have seen mutual promotion and integration of science and technology and the financial space.

And this has injected impetus into the city's innovations.

As one of the pilot cities to promote financial technology, Shanghai has made remarkable achievements in boosting the development of small and medium enterprises by launching innovative financial services and products and building information service platforms, Zhang added.

The committee said that as of the end of 2018, it has partnered with 21 banks and six insurance and guarantee institutions to support science and technology companies.

Outstanding loans to those firms total 250 billion yuan ($37.18 billion).

More than 3,700 small businesses in the science and technology area have been helped by the committee.

And 22 of those went public on the main board during the past year.

Looking ahead, the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee said that it aims to offer more diversified services and products to technology startups by leveraging and combining resources from the banking and insurance industries.

Yesterday, the committee signed separate memorandums for strategic cooperation with the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

And the three organizations aim to help develop small enterprises through comprehensive cooperation in information sharing, training services and risk prevention and control.