Many new online businesses and technologies in northeast Shanghai’s Yangpu District are on offer as part of the district’s aim to become a highland for digital infrastructure and the online economy. The district government released an action plan on Wednesday to focus on 11 key online economy fields such as 5G and the BeiDou navigation system, unmanned transport and new-energy vehicles as well as online medical and new retail. “By 2022, Yangpu aims to create a new economy park, 10 demonstration projects, over 100 leading tech firms and 10,000 digitalized companies with a total industrial scale of 100 billion yuan (US$14.38 billion),” said Miao Rongbin, director of the district’s development and reform commission. The boom in the online economy after the COVID-19 pandemic has brought more opportunities for tech firms and new online businesses. New infrastructure, such as 5G base stations and charging stations for electric cars, are expected to help restore the economy after the pandemic as well as drive future economic development, according to Yangpu’s science commission. The action plan features stronger support for scientific research centers. Databases and technological centers will be established to include data on integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, intelligent manufacturing, new materials, new-energy cars and big data. Based on artificial intelligence (AI), more smart self-service machines will be launched in local communities, the commission said. Yangpu neighborhoods are being encouraged to build additional private and shared charging poles. Several demonstration neighborhoods will be developed across the district. Smart car charging The city’s first model charging station for new-energy vehicles was launched at the Changyang Campus, an innovation park transformed from a historical cotton mill with many AI and robotic technologies. Drivers can charge their cars as well as check the condition of the battery at the station, said Fei Qian, deputy general manager with KBVIP, a startup founded in Yangpu in March. “Over 300,000 kilowatt hours of electricity was charged within 100 days after the station’s grand opening, equal to a total driving distance of 1.8 million kilometers,” Fei said. Around a third of the cars were Tesla and Nio models, while over 60 percent were taxis and ride-hailing cars, he said. In the next step, the company plans to develop the Xinfengcheng Community on Kongjiang Road as the first demonstration community with the smart charging facility. It will be promoted to more neighborhoods, industrial parks, hotels, hospitals, commercial complexes and government bodies across Yangpu. The district also plans to build three Internet hospitals and five digitalized schools by 2022. Other key sectors and businesses include remote office, education and medical services, online financial services, digital culture, smart transport, online research and design as well as new retail. The companies taking part in the action plan can enjoy subsidies and preferential policies, while the district government will share data resources on subways, roads, public health, food safety and public utilities with them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, on-demand retail and delivery platform Dada has seen its non-contact delivery orders increase 1.3 times on average daily, said Zhao Qin, a Dada official. Backed by JD and Walmart, it operates JD-Daojia and Dada Now, two on-demand retail platforms in more than 700 Chinese cities. Yangpu has gathered nearly 8,000 small and medium-size tech companies, including many leading firms such as Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Ucloud and Liulishuo. Among them, there are 561 companies operating the online new economy businesses, with total output value of 70 billion yuan. The information transmission, software and information service industries increased by nearly a third in the first quarter of the year despite the pandemic, said Xiao Jing, director of the science commission. The district also has over 20 scientific parks and 70 maker spaces. By June, Yangpu had built 1,044 5G base stations, Xiao said.