(Yicai Global) Feb. 23 -- Shanghai will provide allowances and rewards to recognized innovative enterprise headquarters as part of the Chinese city’s efforts to accelerate its development into a global hub for scientific innovation.

Innovative company HQs will be offered up to CNY5 million (USD725,404) in allowances and subsidies to rent office buildings for three years if they are registered in Shanghai or have moved registration to the city since Jan. 1  last year and have a paid-in registered capital of over CNY100 (USD14.5 million), according to a policy document Shanghai’s top planning body released yesterday. The policy will take effect on March. 1.

Shanghai aims to support high-growth and research and development firms and encourage them to set up HQs in the city, drive the transformation and application of R&D achievements, and increase total economic contribution of innovation and R&D, said Qiu Wenjin, deputy director at the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

Such HQs will also be rewarded for good performance, with a CNY5 million bonus offered to those that reach annual sales of CNY500 million for the first time and bring an economic contribution of more than CNY10 million (USD1.5 million) to the region, the document showed.

A CNY3 million reward awaits those hitting annual sales of CNY1 billion (USD145.1 million) for the first time, with the same local economic contribution required, and a CNY2 million bonus for achieving yearly sales of CNY1.5 billion.

Besides the registration and paid-in registered capital requirements, to be recognized as an innovative HQ a firm also needs to have total assets of over CNY200 million or a market capitalization of CNY2 billion or more, with annual sales in excess of CNY100 million or averaged sales growth of over 20 percent in the last three years, according to the policy document.

Recognized innovative company HQs also need to spend more than CNY50 million on R&D or invest over 5 percent of their sales income each year, with the figure rising to more than 10 percent for applicants from the fields of software and information services, integrated circuit design, biomedical research, and development outsourcing, the document showed. 

HQs also must have core intellectual property rights for products and services in Shanghai, including over 15 patents, exclusive ownership of an integrated circuit layout design, and software copyrights. Those with product registration certificates for innovative drugs, new and improved drugs with high technical content, and innovative class II or class III medical devices can also qualify.

Shanghai will also provide financial support to firms recognized as innovative HQs on the basis of talent hiring, fundraising, and patent applications.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev