The China-Israel Innovation Hub (Shanghai) was launched in Shanghai’s Putuo district. It is a major step in Shanghai’s implementation of a national strategy to promote Chinese and Israeli scientific and technological innovation. Twenty companies or institutions, 10 of them from Israel, will be based at the China-Israel Innovation Hub on the former site of the Shanghai Hero Pen Factory, now renamed Hero World. Leading Israeli incubators, such as Ehealth and Trendlines, which focus on medical and agri-food tech, will operate at the hub in Taopu Smart City, serving Israeli high-tech and startup firms. Both incubators, among the 19 registered with the Israeli Innovation Authority, were attracted to the hub by the large market and strong production ability of China, said Qiang Hao, Deputy General Manager with the Shanghai Taopu Smart City Development Construction Co. China’s Vice President Wang Qishan signed the China-Israel Innovation Cooperation Action Plan (2018-2021) during a visit to Israel in October last year.

Putuo aims to develop the innovation hub into a demonstration zone on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in Shanghai and China.The district also established an investment foundation totaling CNY150 million to assist startup firms get off the ground within the hub. Eighteen preferential policies in nine categories will soon be released to further benefit the companies. The companies and institutions that move into the hub before the end of 2019 can enjoy reductions on lease and tax, as well as subsidies for office decoration, while foreign professionals can claim housing subsidies and awards. The innovation hub aims to attract 60 high-tech companies from across the world within three years.

The hub is within Taopu Smart City, a former industrial park being developed into a high-end business district. The hub is expected to make Putuo’s Taopu area rival the Zhangjiang Technology City in the Pudong New Area as a key center for the development of Shanghai as a technology and innovation center. The first phase of the hub’s development has been completed on the former site of Shanghai’s Hero pen factory, which dates back to the 1930s. It offers 1,500 square meters of exhibition space and a service center, and another 1,500 square meters of support facilities and 4,500 square meters of office space.

The second phase will be expanded to the Top Plaza by 2021. It will feature about 50,000 square meters of offices and over 10,000 sq m of apartments. The East China Normal University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will cooperate with the Weizmann research center, the University of Haifa and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on talent training, joint laboratories and industry research institutes. The innovation hub in Shanghai has launched an overseas office in Tel Aviv, later to be followed by offices in Haifa and Beersheba, the Shanghai Daily reports.