Detailed plans have been carried out in Shanghai's \r\nPudong New Area to make firm steps toward realizing the central \r\ngovernment's blueprint for the area.

Officials and experts said Pudong should courageously embrace the \r\nrest of the world. Companies and institutions in the area should learn \r\nfrom the best, and compete with the strongest and the fastest.

To that end, the global operation program was launched at the end of \r\nlast year, in order to better facilitate Pudong-based multinational \r\ncompanies in reaching to rest of the world. The first group of 41 \r\ncompanies enrolled in the plan－including Panasonic Procurement \r\n(Shanghai) and Sinopharm Group－have seen the size of their business grow\r\n by an average of more than 40 percent year-on-year during the first \r\nhalf. A second group of 52 companies are awaiting their turn.

Meanwhile, 14 multinational companies set up their regional \r\nheadquarters in Pudong in the first half－a number nearly half of the \r\ncity's total in that period. Over time, 373 multinational companies have\r\n situated their regional headquarters in Pudong.

On July 19, German chemicals giant Covestro represented the 30,000 \r\nplus multinationals in Shanghai to attend a meeting organized by the \r\nlocal government at which officials, academics and industry experts \r\nbrainstormed on how best to implement the central government's \r\nguideline.

Pudong's highly efficient local government and extensive services \r\nprovided to companies have helped Covestro make the move to the area, \r\nsaid Holly Lei, president of Covestro China.

"We consider China a local market for Covestro. And we are willing to\r\n contribute to Pudong's higher-level opening-up, high-quality \r\ndevelopment and innovations," she said.

Innovation is stressed not only by Covestro but also highlighted in \r\nPudong's development for the following years. On July 29, the local \r\ngovernment released its Group Open Innovation plan, which encourages \r\nindustry leaders to set up open innovation platforms in Pudong.

Pudong's Deputy Director Wu Qiang said the GOI plan is the area's \r\nlatest initiative to build itself into an innovation hub with global \r\ninfluence, and it will help foster a group of leading small and \r\nmedium-sized tech enterprises and improve the environment for scientific\r\n research, technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Pudong.

Looking ahead, he said, Pudong will provide strong support for large \r\nenterprises to establish open innovation centers and boost the \r\ndevelopment of tech SMEs. More efforts will also be made to strengthen \r\nthe industrial and innovation chain, better serve innovation platforms \r\nand SMEs, continuously carry out institutional reforms and make \r\nbreakthroughs in research and development of technological innovation.

Major pharmaceutical company Roche was among the first 20 companies \r\nto join the GOI plan. In May, Roche launched its first in-house \r\naccelerator, or innovation center, globally in Shanghai. The accelerator\r\n will provide tailor-made support for startups in pharmaceutical, \r\ndiagnostics, personalized healthcare, and digital and AI-driven \r\nhealthcare sectors.

"Roche wants to help build up the ecosystem, such as the Roche \r\nAccelerator. And the purpose is to collaborate with the government, with\r\n venture capital, with local biotic companies to bring our biotech to \r\nthe next level," said Shen Hong, head of Roche Innovation Center \r\nShanghai.

Citing the recently released guideline to build Pudong into a pioneer\r\n for socialist modernization, Shen said Roche will play a significant \r\nrole in the initiative and will also benefit from the policy.

"We're very excited about the new policies for Pudong, such as \r\nenhancing innovation capabilities and generating an innovation \r\necosystem," Shen said. "We believe that this will only foster \r\ncollaboration between multinational companies and local companies, \r\ntraditional domestic companies and startups."

The Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council,\r\n China's Cabinet, released a guideline on July 15 saying that Pudong New\r\n Area should pioneer the country's socialist modernization. It should \r\nlead China's higher level of reform and opening-up, serving as a \r\nstrategic link between domestic and international markets, according to \r\nthe guideline.

Wang Xinkui, chairman of the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation \r\nCenter, spoke highly of the guideline, saying building Shanghai into an \r\ninternational financial center and a key innovation hub with global \r\ninfluence will inject new impetus into both the municipality and the \r\ncountry's future development.

He said more efforts should be made to deepen institutional reforms \r\nand opening-up, boost the development of key fields, such as integrated \r\ncircuits and artificial intelligence, and increase the active allocation\r\n of global financial resources.

While accommodating Lujiazui, Shanghai's financial center, Pudong \r\nwill step up efforts to attract more industry leaders and enrich the \r\nfinancial product portfolio, said Zhang Hong, head of the Pudong \r\nfinancial bureau. The global institutional investor cluster plan was \r\nreleased in July to attain that goal.

Financial institutions have moved quickly. Nine well-known global \r\nasset management companies－including T. Rowe Price, Charles Schwab and \r\nAlter Domus－signed agreements with the Pudong local government to set up\r\n offices in Lujiazui.