Qingdao’s New Goals Boost Urban Development

By Wang Zhe

Qingdao’s New Goals Boost Urban Development

By Wang Zhe

As one of China’s first coastal cities to open up to the outside world, Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong Province always stays one step ahead in urban development.

In recent years, China has put forward a series of new proposals for development, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation policy, and the “Made in China 2025” strategy. For local cities, combining these development concepts to find a new path of urban development with unique advantages is the key to realizing economic transition in face of the new normal of Chinese economic growth. Against this background, Qingdao has formulated an overall development plan to build “three centers and one base”, namely a significant innovation center in East China, a major regional service center, an advanced international marine development center and a highend manufacturing base with global competitiveness.

With the approval of the Qingdao General Urban Planning (2011-2020) by the State Council of China in January of this year, Qingdao’s development goals have been upgraded from an important coastal economic center in eastern China to a major national central city along the coastline.

According to Li Qun, a member of the standing committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shandong Provincial Committee and secretary of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee, the construction of “three centers and one base” is a main task for Qingdao in carrying

out its supply-side structural reform, which will contribute to achieving more efficient, more equitable and more sustainable development, therefore promoting the growth of Qingdao’s role as a major national central city along the coastline.

The marine economy is booming in Qingdao.

The construction of “three centers and one base” also provides a platform for the development plans of Qingdao. It is not only the long-term goal of the city’s economic development, but also an important starting point for its urban transformation.

Activating Innovative Spirit

As a city whose growth was made possible thanks to its proximity to the sea, Qingdao has been profoundly influenced by its roots as an ocean civilization, advocating a pioneering and innovative spirit.

In fact, the building of Qingdao as an important innovation center in the eastern coastal area of China is not only a method to maintain its vitality of economic development, but also assigns the city with the task of taking the lead in the national campaign of scientific and technological innovation.

Qingdao is the only city in China that has been designated as a pilot for both the national technological innovation program and the national innovation-driven city program. Its total R&D investment has risen to 2.81 percent of Qingdao’s overall GDP. The city is also home to 964 high-tech companies and 908 key laboratories, enterprise technical centers and engineering technology research centers.

In addition to efforts in technological innovation, Qingdao’s service industry has thrived in recent years.

A series of projects intended to boost the service industry have been approved by the State Council, including the establishment of the Qingdao wealth management and financial reform pilot zone, the China (Qingdao) cross-border e-commerce pilot area, the service outsourcing model city of China and the opening up of Qingdao port’s Dongjiakou District.

As one of the key areas of Qingdao’s service industry, the wealth management and financial reform pilot zone has achieved much success since its establishment in 2014. The scale, quality and efficiency of Qingdao’s financial industry have been improved, and the first batch of wealth management policies have been successfully implemented. By the end of 2015, the added value of the financial sector is 2.4 times higher than it was at the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010). A wealth management center opening up to the world is now accelerating its rise.

Relying on the ocean to build an international advanced marine development center has naturally become one of the urban development goals for coastal cities like Qingdao.

According to official statistics, the city’s marine output reached 209.34 billion yuan (US$31 billion) in 2015, accounting for 22 percent of its total GDP.

At present, Qingdao has primarily formed six marine industrial clusters, covering coastal tourism, sea-related products and materials manufacturing, marine transportation, marine equipment manufacturing and marine fishery and aquatic products processing.

As for talented human resources in marine development, Qingdao enjoys an absolute advantage. The city is home to 26 percent of China’s marine science professionals, among which up to 30 percent are high-level research talents. It is also where the China National Deep Sea Center, the Ocean University of China and the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology are located. The future development potential is enormous.

Qingdao is also seeking a new path of transformation and upgrading in industrial development. With the “Made in China 2025” strategy already formulated, building a world-leading manufacturing base has become another goal for the city’s urban development.

As one of the birthplaces of modern industry in China, Qingdao has already gone through an extraordinary transformation in its industrial development, from an important national textile industrial base in the past to a well-known Chinese brand capital nowadays. Relying on development plans like “marine plus”,“standardization plus”, “internationalization plus” and “innovation plus”, the realization of “intelligent manufacturing in Qingdao” can be expected.

Expanding the Development Sphere

Qingdao has always been at the forefront in the process of urban development in China. In the beginning of the 20th century, it ranked as one of China’s top five trading ports, and remained an important port for foreign trade after the founding of the New China. In the early stages of reform and opening up, Qingdao was selected as one of the first open cities along the coastline. In accordance with the Belt and Road Initiative, the city was positioned as a main stop along the New Eurasian Land Bridge as well as a strategic stronghold for maritime cooperation in 2015. This year, the State Council of China has upgraded the positioning of Qingdao to a major national central city along the coastline.

With changes in the urban development landscape, Qingdao’s development strategy is also constantly being adjusted.

According to the Development Plan on Qingdao Marine Plus (2015-2020) issued in October 2015, the city is focused on six key areas of its marine economy, including “marine plus new mode”,“marine plus new industry”, “marine plus new technology”, “marine plus new space” and “marine plus new carrier”.

At the end of 2015, the “standardization plus” strategy was incorporated into the 13th Five-Year Plan of Qingdao. In the first half of this year, the Internationalization Plus Action Plan of Qingdao (2016-2017) was formulated to accelerate its pace towards becoming an internationalized city.

As a national innovation-driven pilot city, Qingdao’s government recently released a report titled Suggestions on Further Promoting Innovations in Science and Technology. With building a significant innovation center in eastern China as its goal, the city is being driven by a new engine of growth as the Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation policy is carried out.

Speeding up the construction of a significant innovation center in eastern China means closing down backward production facilities and optimizing industrial structure, which is a necessity for Qingdao in its efforts to deepen supply-side structural reform. The construction of a major regional service center indicates that the focus on the city’s industrial development will shft to the high-end service industry. The construction of an advanced international marine development center also represents an upgraded goal in Qingdao’s efforts to boost its marine economy. The construction of a high-end manufacturing base with global competitiveness marks an overall transition of the city’s industrial structure.

Implementing Action Plans

According to Zhang Xinqi, the mayor of Qingdao, the building of a significant innovation center in eastern China will focus on industrial innovation, improvement of quality and efficiency and sustainable development. Finance and information services will remain its core area in creating a major regional service center, with enhancement of the high-end service capacity and innovation in its development model playing the lead role. Under the guidance of the Belt and Road Initiative, building an advanced international marine development center underlines marine scientific development and highend marine industry development.

Thanks to the city’s efforts, the blueprint is turning into reality. The construction plan of the National High-Speed Train Technological Innovation Center has been affirmed by experts from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. As one of the 10 centers listed on the city’s technological innovation action plan, the Center aims to become a world leading research institute in high-speed train technology.

To create a significant innovation center in East China, Qingdao plans to launch 10 innovation programs covering areas of science and technology, industrial development, business model, culture and finance.

At present, Qingdao has plentiful resources to implement its action plan for the construction of a major regional service center. The city is home to 17 industrial parks such as the JD.com e-commerce industrial park, and more than 130 key enterprises for investment in 12 categories. It has over 60 innovation-oriented platform like the Haier financial services platform. Qingdao also plans to launch more than 20 of the Belt and Road cooperation projects in the service industry, and 126 major construction projects with investment over 1 billion yuan (US$150 million) for each.

To build an advanced international marine development center, Qingdao aspires to maintain an annual marine economy growth rate of 12 percent and raise the proportion of marine output in the city’s total GDP by 1 percent. The city’s marine strategy is mainly driven by three development zones. The Blue Valley, a leading high-tech zone for marine research, is advancing its structural and legal reform. The West Coast New Area is pursuing the goal of building a global marine development cooperation demonstration platform while accelerating the construction of a free trade port. The Hongdao Economic Zone is a significant part of China’s innovative development strategy. In addition, a national marine bio-medical industry base and a national blue industry innovation base are under construction in Qingdao’s Laoshan District.

To build a high-end manufacturing base with global competitive advantage, Qingdao has drawn a road map involving 12 industrial fields and 40 key directions of industrial development.The city will focus on blue manufacturing and high-end manufacturing.

As one of China’s first open cities along the coast, Qingdao always stays one step ahead in urban development.