Putuo District convened a conference on April 14 to coordinate the advancement of its digital-intelligent health industry, proposing three major initiatives to achieve its goal of building a 100-billion-yuan industrial cluster: the Shanghai-Nanjing Industrial Innovation Corridor collaboration initiative, the 100-billion-yuan industrial cluster development initiative, and the industrial factor support initiative.
Promoting cross-regional collaboration in the digital-intelligent health sector is a concrete step by Putuo to implement the national strategy of Yangtze River Delta integration. Statistics show that the seven cities along the Shanghai-Nanjing Industrial Innovation Corridor—Nanjing, Wuxi, Changzhou, Suzhou, Nantong, Zhenjiang, and Taizhou—are home to over 10,000 biopharmaceutical enterprises.
"Medical devices and biopharmaceuticals are key industrial chains in Zhenjiang's development plan, with leading companies such as Yuwell Medical and Jebel Pharmaceutical settled there. However, as businesses seek to upgrade their products amid intense market competition, some have expressed interest in establishing innovation centers in Shanghai," said an officer from Zhenjiang's Development and Reform Commission. "Putuo District, located at the starting point of the Shanghai-Nanjing Industrial Innovation Corridor, is just an hour's drive away. Moreover, its abundant resources—land, talent, universities, and hospitals—make it a top choice for many enterprises."
As the corridor's starting point, Putuo will leverage its strengths in producer services to deepen cooperation with cities along the route. The traditional "front shop, back factory" model (where Shanghai handled sales while manufacturing took place in other provinces) is gradually evolving into a "front-end R&D, back-end production" approach. To accelerate this shift, Putuo has allocated 10 million yuan (US$1.37 million) in funding to support technology transfer at Tongji University Science Park, helping move ‘lab breakthroughs’ to "production lines."
The Putuo District Commerce Commission announced plans to solicit digital application scenarios for the digital-intelligent health industry, facilitating the adoption of telemedicine, AI-assisted diagnostics, and other innovations to drive digital and intelligent transformation.
