Shanghai's Jiading records big leap in economic strength and core competitiveness

Jiading district, located in northwestern Shanghai, saw a significant leap in its regional economic scale and core competitiveness during the 14th Five-Year (2021-25) Plan period, said local officials during a Wednesday news conference.

The district's GDP surpassed 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) last year, of which 39.1 percent came from the industrial added value.

The cumulative fixed asset investments exceeded 300 billion yuan during the 14th Five-Year plan period, surpassing the 250-billion-yuan target. Industrial investment reached 25.27 billion yuan last year, the highest among all districts in Shanghai.

Jiading has implemented 265 major industrial and transportation projects since 2021, with a total investment of over 170 billion yuan. The resident population of Jiading grew to 680,000 people in 2024, marking the fastest and largest population influx citywide in recent years.

The share of strategic emerging industries measured by industrial output value increased by 13.4 percentage points compared to the end of the 13th Five-Year (2016-20) Plan period. Three pillar industries of automotive, integrated circuits, and biomedicine reported an average growth of 13.8 percent. Their total output scale reached 360.3 billion yuan last year, while that of biomedicine amounted to 36.58 billion yuan, spiking 122.5 percent from 2020.

A trillion-yuan automotive industry cluster is taking shape in Jiading. The automotive industry contributes approximately 70 percent to the district's industrial output value, 50 percent of GDP, 40 percent of employment, and 30 percent of tax revenue, according to Xiao Wengao, Jiading's Party secretary.

The district has now gathered over 600 key automotive industry players, including more than 220 focusing on intelligent and connected vehicles (ICVs). Leading companies such as SAIC Volkswagen, Aptiv, and ZF have all set up operations in Jiading.

The Shanghai Smart Vehicle Software Park and the Automotive Chip Valley Shanghai have been built in Jiading in the recent five years, with the former attracting over 200 intelligent automotive and software companies, and the latter nurturing an ecosystem encompassing chip R&D design, manufacturing, packaging, testing, and certification.

As China's first national-level demonstration zone for electric vehicles and ICVs, Jiading took the lead in Shanghai in opening all public roads for ICV testing, hosting over 1,000 demonstration and operational vehicles.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Jiading's R&D spending intensity — the ratio of R&D expenditure to added value — reached 6.22 percent. The district is now home to 2,578 high-tech enterprises, 36 A-share companies, and 103 smart factories. It is actively expanding into frontier technology fields such as quantum technology, new energy, and cell therapy.