By FANG Zhuoran

Minhang District has signed deals with 41 tech companies worth 6.6 billion yuan. Nineteen of them will be located in the southern part of the district, which the government hopes will become a new technology and innovation center of excellence.

Southern Minhang is already home to two top universities and more than 40 research institutes, along with neoBay, an incubator jointly run by the government and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The incubator now has close to 200 projects.

Shanghai artificial intelligence institute and institute of medical robotics, both run by Jiao Tong University, are now partners with neoBay. The incubator will also work with banks and funds to improve its financial operations.

The government also announced the creation of a committee to oversee neoBay projects. The new committee will also take over the functions of the previous panel which was in charge of the economic development of the surrounding area.

Minhang is the first district in Shanghai to be home to its own government investment fund, which now manages 6.5 billion yuan of assets. The fun has led and participated in projects whose combined valuation exceeds 100 billion yuan. Eight of the companies that signed on Thursday were funded by the government fund.

Last year, the district government launched a global investment partnership program, which now has more than 30 partners including the Bank of China and PWC.