Several Policy Measures of Shanghai Municipality for Promoting Sound Development of Online New Economy

With a view to implementing the Guidelines of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting Regulated and Sound Development of Platform Economy and the Opinions of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Shanghai Municipal People's Government on Promoting Urban Digital Transformation in Shanghai, this Municipality has chosen online new economy that supports online-offline integration as a key to making major breakthroughs in achieving high-quality economic development and promoting urban digital transformation, to strengthening policy innovation on a pilot basis, to promoting deep integration of digital technology and real economy, to stimulating digital transformation of various entities across the board, to accelerating the building of a modern economic system and new international competitive advantages, and hereby formulates several policy measures as follows:

I. Cultivating Multi-echelon Business Entities in Digital Economy

1. Strengthening the support for headquarters enterprises. Online new economy enterprises which have been accredited as headquarters enterprises of this Municipality may, in accordance with the provisions, be included on the list of key employers that are entitled to support when hiring fresh graduates of colleges and universities who are not from Shanghai, and are offered support in terms of talents residence, entry and exit, cross-border RMB services and cross-border logistics, data circulation, etc. in accordance with law. Headquarters enterprises are encouraged to win honorary titles such as "China Internet Top 100", "Top 100 for Competitiveness in Software and IT Services" and "Top 100 for Competitiveness in National Electronic Information". Qualified headquarters investment and construction projects are included in the mechanism for ensuring major construction projects of this Municipality, and offered support in their planning adjustment, and cross-department and cross-region coordination in accordance with law. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, the Municipal Commission of Commerce, the Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development, the Shanghai Branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the Shanghai Customs District of P. R. China)

2. Supporting platform enterprises to play a leading role in the industry chain. Guidance will be provided for the online new economy platform enterprises of this Municipality to set reasonable service fees in payment settlement and platform commissions, and to provide support for high-quality micro- and small-sized businesses in their starting and doing businesses on the platforms, online store deposit, publicity and promotion, information services and business training. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, and the Municipal Commission of Commerce)

3. Encouraging seed enterprises to go public to secure financing. Those online new economy enterprises that are in line with national strategies, have made breakthroughs in key and core technologies and enjoy high market recognition are supported to be included, in accordance with the provisions, in the database of enterprises which are cultivated and reorganized to go public. Qualified red chip online new economy enterprises are encouraged to return to the domestic capital market, and qualified platform enterprises are supported, in accordance with laws and regulations, to go public at home and abroad. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau, and the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee)

II. Constructing a Carrier Space Suitable for Living and Doing Business

4. Improving the comprehensive environment of ecological parks of online new economy. Efforts will be made to accelerate the construction of the three online new economy ecological parks of "Yangpu Booming Green Belt" (ChangYangXiu Dai), "Zhangjiang Online New Economy Park" and the "Source of Hongqiao" (hereinafter referred to as the "Three Ecological Parks"), improve the surrounding public transportation facilities, accelerate the second-phase construction of Shanghai Metro Line 18, and the construction of Line 21 and the project of elevating the western section of the Outer-ring Line, and promote the planning and research of Metro Lines 24, 26 and 27. Efforts will be made to drive coordinated development of Three Ecological Parks along with Yangpu District Innovation and Entrepreneurship Demo Base, Zhangjiang Science City, Hongqiao International Central Business District, etc., and to improve supportive facilities for pre-school education, commerce, etc. In the work of constructing government-subsidized rental housing in line with the principle of "city-industry integration, and employment-housing balance", an additional 50,000 government-subsidized rental housing units will be constructed in the Three Ecological Parks and their surrounding areas by 2025. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Transport, the Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources, the Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development, the Municipal Housing Administration Bureau, Yangpu District People's Government, Pudong New Area People's Government and Changning District People's Government)

5. Encouraging online new economy ecological parks to innovate construction and management models. The development and operation entities of the Three Ecological Parks are supported to collaborate with the enterprises in the parks to jointly build industrial technology platforms, public service centers, maker-spaces, etc. More efforts will be made to accelerate the construction of new digital infrastructure in the parks. With a focus on the characteristic application scenarios of each of the three parks, innovative business modes, such as 5G+, digital human, self-driving vehicles, and service robots, are encouraged to be applied on a pilot basis in the parks.

The Three Ecological Parks are also supported to strengthen talent cultivation, make innovations in talent evaluation, and explore the establishment of a talent evaluation mechanism in line with market-oriented standards. (Units responsible for implementation: Yangpu District People's Government, Pudong New Area People's Government and Changning District People's Government)

6. Creating a new mode of services concerning flexible employment. Individuals of flexible employment are facilitated to be included in the housing provident fund system. Qualified individuals of flexible employment in the online new economy, such as content creators, creative designers, and e-commerce live streamers, are supported in their application for being various types of business entities, and are provided with integrated services concerning business entity registration, tax-related affairs and employment security through the "Government Online-Offline Shanghai" platform. Relevant pilot programs will be carried out in the online new economy ecological parks at the municipal level, through which individuals flexibly employed on the online new economy platforms can access the services provided by online new economy platforms and third-party service providers. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, the Municipal Tax Service, the Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization)

III. Constructing New Types of Infrastructure to Support New Quality Productive Forces

7. Promoting the construction of infrastructure of new-generation computing power. High-quality online new economy enterprises are encouraged to participate in the construction of the artificial intelligence computing center in this Municipality and jointly create multi-level intelligent computing clusters for commercial use in this city. More efforts will be made to build a municipal-level platform for overall planning and coordination of intelligent computing power and develop the coordination and supply capacity of large-scale advanced computing power to support online new economy enterprises that have completed the deployment of intelligent computing power to be included in the platform for overall planning and coordination. Support will be offered to build a system where the software and hardware of smart chips are adaptive to one another so as to reduce the adaptation costs of enterprises. (Unit responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization)

8. Accelerating the construction of urban block chain infrastructure. The construction of "Pujiang Digital Chains", an urban block chain digital infrastructure system, shall be advanced to build special computing clusters and distributed open networks for the purpose of developing a public infrastructure service platform that facilitates convenient and speedy data entry into a blockchain, data use and interchain operability. A series of benchmark demonstration scenarios of block chains will be constructed to serve such fields as government and public services, data circulation, cross-border trade, shipping and logistics, supply chain finance, and industrial Internet. High-quality enterprises and scientific research institutes are encouraged to jointly carry out research on technological breakthroughs and ecological co-construction in order to create an independent and innovative system of Omnichain technologies. Overseas cooperation will be sought after for the purpose of creating pilot application programs for cross-chain opening up. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, and the Municipal Big Data Center)

9. Improving the open exchange and circulation mechanism for data elements. To intensify the opening up of public data, mechanisms for data operation, such as contract-based and authorization-based open exchange of data, will be established and improved. Online new economy enterprises are encouraged to develop innovative applications through combination of public data and social data. By the year of 2025, more than 30 pilot demonstration projects will have been developed. A leading area in the international data port in the Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone will be constructed to be a one-stop service window for cross-border data flow. The Shanghai Data Exchange will be supported to cultivate a special board for the online new economy where specific subsidies will be granted, in accordance with the provisions, to online new economy data products whose public trading reaches a certain volume. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, Lin-gang Special Area Administration, and the Municipal Big Data Center)

10. Improving the innovation capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) big models. Online new economy enterprises of this Municipality are encouraged to build internationally competitive big models and create data flywheels to accelerate model iteration. The enterprises with major achievements will be rewarded in accordance with the provisions. The applications of qualified big models are included in the list of artificial intelligence demonstration applications and the catalogue of recommended innovative products. The state-owned enterprises and public institutions of this Municipality are supported to share their big model application scenarios and purchase the tested and evaluated big model products and services. A league for big model corpus data will be established to encourage online new economy enterprises to jointly promote the construction of high-level corpus data elements. (Unit responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization)

11. Exploring the construction of a norm-guided Web 3.0 ecosystem. Online new economy enterprises are supported to make research to achieve technological breakthroughs in Web 3.0-oriented technologies such as smart contracts, network operating systems and digital identity authentication. Online new economy enterprises are encouraged to create distributed applications by opening scenarios such as confirmation of data asset rights, supply chain management, credit of business entities, commodity traceability and cross-border trade and circulation. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, and the Municipal Science and Technology Commission)

IV. Developing Open Application Scenarios with Booming New Business Forms

12. Enabling digital transformation of the manufacturing industry. The leading enterprises of this Municipality in different fields of digital transformation, including integrated circuit, textile and automobile, are driven to open their application scenarios, to cooperate with the online new economy platform enterprises of this Municipality for the purpose of jointly building digital supply chains for key industries, and establishing intelligent plant networks, data space characteristic of the industries, green and low-carbon ecology, supply chain finance and artificial intelligence big model applications. Online new economy enterprises are supported to cooperate with professional service providers of industry Internet and the characteristic industrial parks of this Municipality to carry out "Platform + Park" integration and innovation. (Unit responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization)

13. Popularizing the intelligent and sharing modes of transportation. The coverage of open test roads for self-driving vehicles will be expanded and the express roads will gradually be made accessible to such vehicles. Enterprises in the field of intelligent transportation are encouraged to develop demonstration applications of intelligent taxis and new driverless deliveries. A mechanism for the total quantity control and dynamic adjustment of Internet-based shared bikes will be optimized to reasonably increase bikes in densely-populated suburban areas, and concurrently to carry out effective operation, maintenance and dispatch of such bikes. (Unit responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Transport)

14. Optimizing Internet-based medical service. Certain kinds of chronic illnesses will be covered by medicare. The Internet-based hospital service will be optimized through the establishment of a whole-chain management system for online diagnosis and treatment, prescriptions making, drug effect tracking and remote follow-up diagnosis. The online medicare system for Internet-based medical payment settlement will be improved, with the establishment of an Internet-based medical insurance security system covering such fields as "healthcare + medicine + insurance". (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Health, and the Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau)

15. Promoting the orderly development of online education. The standards on digitalized education platforms will be improved, to guide enterprises to provide various services and applications for the digital transformation of education. Online educational application scenarios will be made open for different educational stages and types, forming a supply mechanism in which "governments make overall planning, enterprises build, and schools purchase", so as to promote the development and application of high-quality online training courses by technical and skilled talents. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Education, and the Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security)

V. Clustering the Innovative Elements that Stimulate Industrial Vitality

16. Supporting enterprises to boost their capabilities for scientific and technological innovation. Online new economy enterprises are supported to apply for various municipal-level special funds for industries and for national major scientific and technological projects. In the case of the key tasks specified by the State and this Municipality and for the key projects of strategic and public welfare nature, with the approval of the Municipal People's Government, the support proportion may reach as high as 50% of the confirmed total investment of the projects, and the maximum support amount may be 50 million yuan. Online new economy enterprises are supported to increase investment in research and development and to actively apply for the title of high-tech enterprises. Qualified products and services in the field of the online new economy are supported to be included in this Municipality's catalogue of recommended innovative products, which serves as a reference for procurement by the governments, and state-owned enterprises and public institutions. Relevant enterprises may be appropriately given extra points in accordance with the provisions when they apply for the accreditation of pilot patent demonstration enterprises. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the Municipal Intellectual Property Administration, and the Municipal  Bureau of Finance)

17. Promoting the innovation of diversified financial services. Financial institutions in this Municipality are supported to carry out pilot financial innovations such as digital asset-based financing, cloud usage-based financing, data trusts, science and technology insurance and intellectual property pledge financing (IPPF). Funds for the online new economy are supported to be established to provide targeted financing services for various types of qualified online new economy enterprises to expand their business and meet their major development needs such as their equity reform, return of red chip enterprises, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring. Online new economy enterprises are supported to cooperate with agencies of digital RMB pilot operations to expand the integrated application of digital RMB and Internet new technologies and new models. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Shanghai Office of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the Municipal Intellectual Property Administration, and the Shanghai Head Office of the People's Bank of China)

18. Strengthening the multi-level bringing in, cultivation, hiring, and retention of talents. Qualified enterprises that are selected as the top 100 fast-growing enterprises and the top 100 enterprises in the software and information technology service industry of Shanghai for the current year will be recommended to be on the list of the key employers of talents of this Municipality. Online new economy enterprises are supported to apply for Oriental Talents Plan teams and youth programs, and the rewards and grants for leading talents in the industries will be increased. The channels for vocational evaluation and professional title evaluation will be open to vocational technicians in such new occupations as digital creative designing and digital operation. Explorations will be made to establish a mechanism linked to international vocational qualifications and professional title evaluation in the field of information technology. Relevant fields in the online new economy will receive priority in implementing pilot cultivation programs that integrate vocational education with academic disciplines, thus launching a number of master’s degree and doctor’s degree programs. (Units responsible for implementation: the Municipal  Commission of Education, the Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization)

VI. Formulating Measures for Ensuring the Prosperity and Sound Development of the Industries

19. Strengthening the dynamic monitoring of online new economy enterprises. A coordination mechanism for the work involving the online new economy will be established to coordinately solve major problems in the industrial development. Precise docking with online new economy enterprises will be put in place to implement various measures in the "serving-enterprise packages". "Pujiang Starry River", a system of contacting and serving online new economy enterprises, will be improved, and the mechanism of direct reporting of major affairs of the enterprises will be established and improved. The monitoring over industrial operation and statistical analysis of key fields will be strengthened in order to carry out real-time monitoring and early warning for the major and common issues in the industries. (Unit responsible for implementation: the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization)

20. Improving the service system for the development of the online new economy industry. Professional third-party compliance service teams will be established to provide compliance evaluation and consultation, legal aid and other professional services, with a focus on fields such as data compliance, cybersecurity, platform governance, enterprises "going global", and market financing. More efforts will be made to improve the system of exemption from administrative penalties for minor violations in accordance with law, and to improve the tolerant and prudential regulation. Support for the "going global" of enterprises and products with high-quality digital content will be strengthened, the cultivation and incubation mechanism for products, services and brands to "go global" will be improved, and the channels for capital inflow from overseas business will be smoothed. Cross-border e-commerce platforms will be supported to build and share "international warehouses" jointly with logistics and trading enterprises to promote "high-quality products to go global". (Units responsible for implementation: the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, the Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, the Municipal Commission of Commerce, the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, and the Municipal Bureau of Justice)

These Policy Measures shall be effective as of January 1, 2024 and remain effective until December 31, 2028.