Analysis | Too ambitious? Shanghai aims to be both top financial hub and ‘China’s Silicon Valley’ by 2020

Shanghai, China’s financial capital, is raising the stakes. It is not just aiming to become one of the world’s top three financial centres but it’s also poised to launch an ambitious plan to become the country’s version of Silicon Valley.

The Shanghai government announced earlier this week that technological innovation would be its number 1 priority this year, ultimately seeking to become a “globally influential technological innovation hub”.

Shanghai’s ambition for technology and innovation comes at a time when the central government is urging support at all levels for Premier Li Keqiang’s new “Internet Plus” strategy, which was revealed recently at China’s annual political summit in Beijing.

“We must seize the time now that takes ‘Internet Plus’ as a major backdrop,” said Shanghai’s Communist Party chief Han Zheng in a statement on the municipal government’s website.

Han also said the city had made key strides in its “No. 1 Study Plan” – a seeming blueprint for its ambitions, though its exact details remain unclear. He said this would be a “policy of national strategy in the next step”.

“The technological innovation centre that Shanghai will build is a large global platform that will keep an open mind about attracting everyone,” he said in a meeting on the study plan.