Shanghai to Accelerate Chip, Aviation Sectors to Catch Up With Foreign Makers

Tang Shihua

(Yicai Global) May 8 — The Shanghai government is speeding up development plans for its integrated circuit and civil aviation industries to help its manufacturers catch up with those in other countries.

The city has big plans for the chip sector, state-backed news site The Paper cited Chen Mingbo, head of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology, as saying at a press briefing yesterday.

“We must strive to break through the technical bottleneck in integrated circuits and airplane engines to solve key problems that overseas manufacturers don’t have,” he said, adding that Shanghai needs to up the pace of development.

The comments coincide with Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE Corp.’s appeal for the United States to suspend a denial order which prevents the firm from buying American technologies for seven years. The punishment was the result of failing to punish staff behind the sale of American technology to Iran and North Korea, an action that also earned it a denial order which it managed to suspend.

Shanghai has the country’s best foundations for the IC sector and companies need to work together to share ideas, form plans and execute them, he added. The city plans to roll out new policies to bring in new talent for the industries and hopes to cultivate new workers locally, Chen said.

Editor: James Boynton