Shanghai has introduced a comprehensive action plan to boost the service sector, which serves as a significant part of the city's modern industrial system and plays an important role in various aspects of the city's development, ranging from the economy to people's quality of life.

During a recent news conference, the Shanghai municipal government briefed the media on the action plan, which encompasses 31 measures across four categories, as follows:

1. Strengthen the role of the service economy as a main economic driver by:

Attracting high-quality enterprises

• Establish a key enterprise directory and a key project list and carry out precise investment promotion.

Formulating new investment promotion models

• Conduct investment promotion to build an industrial ecosystem, promote factor-based investment promotion, and encourage the introduction of high-tech projects.

Enhancing forward-looking planning

• Formulate the 15th Five-Year Plan for the development of the service industry.

Encouraging enterprise expansion

• Provide support to enterprises that achieve or maintain a certain scale or growth in annual revenue or sales, according to regulations.

Providing tailor-made services to leading enterprises

• Offer one-on-one services to leading enterprises that make significant economic contributions.

2. Cultivate new drivers for service industry development by:

Encouraging research and development

• Provide support for industrial software projects through the city's strategic emerging industry development fund.

Promoting the construction of public service platforms and facilities

• Support the construction of high-quality incubators, concept verification centers, and pilot bases for the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.

Supporting AI integration and empowerment

• Utilize the city's AI industry master fund to support large model enterprises in establishing industrial ecosystem funds.

Increasing efforts to attract and train talent

• Support top global scientists and leading experts with core intellectual property in conducting disruptive technological innovations in Shanghai.
• Establish a directory of talent needs in key service areas of the city.

Supporting the development of new employment forms

Support flexible employment and provide registration, tax-related services, and other business-related assistance for business entities offering flexible employment through the "Government Online-Offline Shanghai" platform.

Enhancing vocational training capacity

• Provide subsidies for enterprises conducting new apprenticeship training for new occupations such as AI trainers and data security auditors.
• Support the joint development of courses and sharing of training facilities between schools and enterprises.
• Grant tax incentives and fee exemptions as per regulations for enterprises to integrate industry and education.

Issuing vouchers to professional and high-tech service providers

• Support the issuance of vouchers in areas such as Pudong New Area, Jing'an district, Xuhui district, and Hongqiao International Central Business District to support the development of professional and high-tech service enterprises and encourage more regions to replicate and promote this practice.

Supporting the development of new real-world applications

• Publish real-world application guidelines for new services in emerging fields such as the digital economy and green low-carbon sector; reward those projects that successfully replicate the real-world application.

Encouraging the expansion of businesses abroad

• Support professional service institutions and financial institutions in serving local enterprises in their overseas operations.

Reducing operational costs

• Support cost deductions in professional services such as legal and advertising, allowing tax deductions for offering public services.

Reducing financing costs

• Allow technology service enterprises and institutions to apply for technology loan.
• Support financial institutions in piloting innovative financial services such as data-based loans; allow AI enterprises to use computing power and corpora as financing assets; support micro-short drama projects in copyright pledge financing and logistics and warehousing facility projects in issuing Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).
• Pilot the establishment of risk funds for overseas investment and overseas investment loss reserve systems for professional service institutions.

Improving the guiding effectiveness of fiscal funds

• Increase support funding to guide the development of the service industry and broaden its scope, with a focus on the fields of advertising, legal, and human resource services.

3. Activate consumption to improve and expand the service industry by:

Supporting the integration of culture, tourism, commerce, sports and exhibitions

• Establish a coordination mechanism for the development of culture, tourism, commerce, sports and exhibitions; provide support to eligible projects that link these fields.
• Build a one-stop platform for culture, tourism, commerce, sports and exhibitions to realize resource linkage, service co-promotion, and information interconnection.
• Encourage the development of digital ticketing and support the development of enterprises on online ticketing platforms.

Promoting the quality and professional development of service supply

• Promote the establishment of employee-based housekeeping enterprises and provide subsidies to certified housekeeping personnel for vocational skill enhancement.
• Support the development of wholly foreign-owned hospitals and encourage the expansion of commercial health insurance support.

Playing up the role of platforms to enhance e-commerce service

• Encourage platform enterprises to provide discounts to small and micro merchants in areas such as merchant entry and online store deposits.
• Support e-commerce platforms in implementing plans to nurture and attract original local brand managers.

Increasing efforts to promote consumption

• Strengthen city-district linkage, enrich the content and merchant coverage of consumption vouchers, and coordinate the orderly issuance of special consumption vouchers.

Supporting the hosting of major events

• Optimize the approval and management of major events; relax the limit on the number of tickets that can be sold (issued) for large commercial performances under the premise of ensuring safety.

Creating new consumption opportunities

• Cultivate emerging economies and new consumption trends such as the night economy, silver economy, “goods” or memorabilia economy, and cruise tourism.
• Support enterprises in innovating and creating integrated service consumption models such as “tourism + sports."

Optimizing the consumption environment

• Strengthen the supervision of service consumption and severely crack down on fraudulent advertising, online scams, and other illegal practices.
• Encourage the formulation of group and enterprise standards around digital consumption and green consumption.

4. Create a high-quality ecosystem for service industry development by:

Accelerating reform and innovation in key areas

• Implement a strategy to enhance the development of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (including the Lin-gang Special Area) and launch a new round of service industry opening-up pilot measures.
• Deepen the reform of the scientific and technological management system and encourage the operation mode of separating ownership, operation rights, and income rights of scientific and technological achievements in universities and research institutes.

Strengthening pilot demonstrations in key areas

• Support the higher-level opening-up and the role of Pudong New Area as the pioneer area for socialist modernization; support key national strategic areas such as the Lin-gang Special Area in launching upgraded pilot programs.
• Utilize the policies of the FTZ-linked innovative zones to support the construction of functional facilities such as the distribution center for ship supplies.

Cultivating high-level entities

• Increase support for the headquarters of innovative enterprises and optimize the mechanism for reserve, evaluation, recognition, and rewards.
• Support law firms, accounting firms, and others in applying for "Shanghai Brand" certification and participating in the cultivation of benchmark enterprises locally.

Creating high-quality carriers

• Establish industrial parks for enterprises offering professional services, information services, and technology services in the fields of human resources, software, and scientific innovation.
• Create cluster areas for performances, jewelry and fashion, providing services that encompass culture, tourism, commerce, sports and exhibitions.

Optimizing enterprise services

• Promote the enterprise service commissioner system and customize service packages for service industry enterprises.
• Optimize the "Government Online-Offline Shanghai" platform providing tailored preferential services for enterprises; promote closed-loop management such as unified project application entry.

Optimizing supervision and law enforcement

• Deepen inclusive and prudent supervision of new formats and models; pilot the "Regulatory Sandbox" in some sectors.
• Promote the "self-declaration + public commitment" supervision model in low-risk areas.

Improving statistical monitoring in key areas

• Formulate statistical classification standards for professional services and industrial services, improve service consumption statistics, and implement normalized statistical monitoring.
• Encourage social organizations to compile industry development indexes such as the professional services development index and the "culture, tourism, commerce, sports and exhibitions" linkage index.

Source: Official WeChat account of Shanghai Municipal People's Government at "shanghaifabu"