In the past four years since the establishment of the Lingang Special Area, the average annual growth rate of the area's gross regional product has been 21.2 percent, far exceeding Shanghai's average growth of around 4 percent, local officials said at a conference on Monday.

The average annual growth rate of its gross industrial output for enterprises with annual income exceeding 20 million yuan (US$2.76 million) has been 37.8 percent, while the average annual growth rate of fixed-asset investment has been 39.9 percent, according to data released at the 2023 Lingang Global Investment and Cooperation Conference in Shanghai.

The average annual growth rate of foreign investment has been 58.7 percent, while the average annual growth rate of the total trade volume of the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone has been 22.1 percent.

Chen Jinshan, Party secretary of Lingang, said at the conference, which focused on "Opening up" and "Development," that the data showed the strength of the special area, which is thriving.

It showcases the industrial development potential and urban charm of Lingang to the outside world, and continuously expands the "circle of friends" for attracting investment through the promotion of the special area.

Agreements on 14 key projects were signed during the conference, covering various fields such as cutting-edge industries, service trade, finance, urban functions, and etc.

Tang Hao, deputy director of the Lingang Special Area Administrative Committee, conducted a thematic promotion of Lingang around the four words "outgoing, progressive, energetic, and noteworthy."

Since its establishment, the Lingang Special Area, based in Shanghai, has been facing the world, always considering reform as the biggest dividend and opening up as the most important mission. The simple abbreviation of these four English words "OPEN" has drawn a portrait of the opening-up of Lingang, according to Tang.

Jason Wang, vice president and general manager of Cummins China Engine Business Unit, told Shanghai Daily that Cummins has invested in Lingang to build a hydrogen energy headquarters.

"As hydrogen energy is an emerging business at the incubation stage, the local government needs to have a good plan for the hydrogen energy industry chain. To develop this industry, the entire industry chain needs to work together," said Wang.

"Lingang has a clear plan for the investment of hydrogen energy infrastructure, including the number of hydrogen stations to be built as well as all aspects of the pilot projects in the region, which is also an important basis for our investment decisions."

Ye Yuming, co-founder, director and chief operating officer of Energy Singularity Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd, noted that Energy Singularity is a startup developing controllable nuclear fusion future energy.

"We settled in Lingang last year, and our research and development, production and laboratory are all here," Ye noted.

"We are building the world's first all high-temperature superconductivity Tokamak device, which is a plasma experimental device, as a basis for future development of nuclear fusion devices with commercial development potential.

"The whole process needs a long period, maybe as long as 15 years. Hence, we are fully confident of Lingang's future development and that's why we have launched our business here."