A promotional event for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and investment opportunities in Songjiang is held in Shanghai on April 22. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Songjiang New City, one of the five "new cities" located in the suburbs of Shanghai, will strive to build industrial clusters of emerging sectors over the next five years as part of efforts to drive the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Delta region, according to a promotional conference on April 22.

The conference, focusing on the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and investment opportunities in Songjiang, was organized by the Shanghai Foreign Investment Development Board, also known as Invest Shanghai, and aimed to present the industrial advantages, investment policies and market opportunities in the five new cities.

Located in the southwest of Shanghai, Songjiang is positioned to become a high-tech innovation hub in the region and an important part of the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Valley in the Yangtze River Delta region, an alliance of nine major cities in the region dedicated to promoting infrastructure construction and creating a better business environment.

With help from the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Valley, Songjiang will develop industrial clusters of emerging sectors such as new-generation electronic information, new materials, new-energy vehicles and bio-medicine, said Liu Fusheng, deputy head of Songjiang district.

Li Hong, deputy-director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said that Shanghai, a leader in China's efforts to open up, has been a magnet for foreign investment.

Official data shows that in the first quarter of this year, Shanghai's actual utilized foreign capital hit $5.63 billion, up 20.5 percent year-on-year.

By the end of March, 785 regional headquarters of multinational corporations and 486 foreign-funded research and development centers were set up in Shanghai, both numbers ranking first in China.

The 2021 Shanghai Foreign Investment Guide, compiled by the Shanghai Foreign Investment Development Board, was also released in both Chinese and English, painting a complete picture of Shanghai's investment environment, investment policies, major investment areas and investment services.

Over 100 representatives from overseas consulate generals in Shanghai, investment agencies and foreign enterprises attended the event.