(Yicai Global) Aug. 26 -- An academic salon hosted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences was held in Shanghai yesterday, revealing the latest academic research and achievements in the development of the city’s Lingang New Area, and also discussing the future of the Yangtze River Delta.

In the past three years, reforms for Lingang New Area have taken shape, with measures including lowering the threshold for foreign investment, cutting the negative list, and making customs clearance of goods more convenient, said Quan Heng, secretary of the Party committee of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. 

Cutting-edge industries such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence and aerospace are gathering in Lingang at an accelerated pace, he added.

Global economic and trade reordering is increasingly characterized by regionalized trade, making the Yangtze River Delta crucial for China to create world-class industrial clusters, said Liu Liang, a researcher.

The integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta will also focus on green and dual carbon targets by building markets such as the Shanghai Environment Energy Exchange, he said.

In the past four years, the Yangtze River Delta has accounted for a quarter of the country's economic output despite covering just 4 percent of the total land area. The share of foreign investment it attracted peaked at 60 percent, while port cargo throughput made up 41.8 percent of the total, and its integrated circuit industry accounted for 58.3 percent of the country’s total.

Editor: Tom Litting