A view of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. [Photo/VCG]

The photonic chip technology developed by the team led by Jin Xianmin, a quantum communication researcher and professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, is currently in the verification stage and is expected to be put into industrial production within three to five years.

Jin is also the founder of TuringQ, a world leader in optical quantum computing that has completed four rounds of financing and is valued at nearly 3 billion yuan ($422.54 million). The company, which is headquartered in Shanghai, also has offices in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, and Beijing.

In the last three years, Shanghai had the largest number of talent reserves in China, according to a report by recruitment website Liepin's big data research institute. In 2022, the proportion of talent reserves in Shanghai was 10.2 percent, the highest in the nation, followed by Beijing (9.18 percent) and Shenzhen (6.43 percent).

According to the 2022 Returnees Index of the 300 Ecosystem, "city charm" and "confidence in returning to China" are the two main reasons graduates want to work and live in Shanghai.

Shanghai has in recent years also been taking steps to encourage young people to innovate and start businesses. 

"We hope to help young people understand the direction of future industrial development, broaden their horizons and boost innovation and entrepreneurship," said officials at the news briefing for the fourth Shanghai Y50 Forum for Innovation and Entrepreneurship held recently.

The forum focused on the four major new tracks and five future industries, and saw the announcement of four innovation achievements.

Leading future industries

Shanghai recently released a new policy on future industrial layout and unveiled a batch of new application scenarios to help innovative companies grow and prosper. 

According to the Action Plan on Creating An Innovation Highland for Future Industries and Expanding Future Industrial Clusters in Shanghai, Shanghai is proposing the construction of about 15 pilot zones for five industrial clusters - health, intelligence, energy, space and material - to create core components, produce high-end products and form first-class Chinese standards.

Jin said that Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region have a good foundation in integrated circuit design and that TuringQ's industrial layout is in line with the integrated development of the YRD in terms of talents, research and development and future production.

Pan Jing, who graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University before furthering his studies in the United States, is among the entrepreneurs in Zhangjiang, an innovation hub in Shanghai, who have found success.

In 2015, he founded robot maker TMiRob, a high-tech company that specializes in the R&D and production of medical service robots.

According to Pan, Shanghai is the ideal place in China to operate such a company as it is home to top medical institutions and talents with top-notch skills. Looking ahead, Pan hopes that Shanghai will strengthen the support provided to intergenerational technology industries in terms of industrial planning and fixed-asset investment.

"If there is targeted support for intergenerational technology at the policy level and the proportion of intelligent construction is clearly defined in the budget for medical infrastructure investment, a new driving force will be created for this industry segment," he said.

'A land of dreams' for young talents

According to Shanghai's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), the city will implement several policies to attract overseas talents, encourage Sino-foreign cooperation in talent training and make applications for visa, work permit, long-term and permanent residency easier for foreign talents.

The city will also launch more attractive policies to gather domestic talents, introduce talents to key industries and basic research fields and provide generous subsidies to help talents settle. 

He Qiang, director of the Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Engineering of Fudan University, the Ministry of Education, has been working at the university since completing his postdoctoral research at Duke University in the US in 2018. He currently specializes in research on biodiversity and conservation and restoration of estuarine wetlands.

"Shanghai supports young people to engage in educational and research work. People like me who have just returned from abroad or have just started working need assistance in the early stage. I have benefited a lot from these policies," said He.  

Shanghai is also providing professional services for returnee entrepreneurs. On May 16, Zhangjiang held the 2023 Pudong Innovation competition for overseas returnees.

He Dajun, deputy chairman and general manager of Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, said that the participating teams in the competition were mainly founded by those born in the 80s and 90s.

To encourage entrepreneurship among the younger generation, Shanghai authorities have been relying on places like the incubation base of the Shanghai Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Center, the NeoBayGlobal Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cluster and the innovation ecosystem around Tongji University. 

The 2022 Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Report released in January shows that Shanghai added 22 new scientific and technological incubators and 25 innovation spaces last year. It also built more than 600 types of sci-tech innovation and entrepreneurship carriers, incubated 30,000 enterprises and attracted nearly 130,000 innovative and entrepreneurial talents.