Jinan catches world's attention for vigorous, energetic advance

The mighty city of Jinan is catching the attention of the world for its vigorous and successful development, and its advances are increasingly being recognized by leading experts and analysts.

Just recently, the city moved up into the Beta level — cities that link moderate economic regions into the world economy — in a world ranking list released by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, or GaWC, a think tank that studies and rates world cities in the context of globalization.

In 2016, the city was rated by GaWC at its Sufficiency level, and after just two years' development, the city went up two levels to become a second-tier world city.

GaWC categorizes world cities into Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Sufficiency tiers, based on their international connectedness.

According to the recent list, six Chinese cities are among Alpha world cities, the highest level: Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The latest ranking by GaWC reflects the fast development of Jinan in recent years, and it will help accelerate the city's pace in building itself into an international metropolis in the future, experts said.

Earlier this year, Jinan hosted a number of high-level international conferences and exhibitions. These included the Conference of Great Business Partners 2018, the International Summit on Innovation and

Development of Youth Entrepreneurs, the Senior Dialogue Between MNCs and Jinan, the China Intelligent Manufacturing International Conference.

Others included the Belt and Road International Cooperation City Credit Alliance Summit, the first New Media Development Conference of China and the 5th China's Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo.

Still others were the 7th Shandong Cultural Industries Fair, the Jinan Human Capital Industry Summit, the Chinese-German Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Cooperation and Communication Conference.

Officials said these events drew a large number of domestic and international enterprise representatives and professionals.

Being optimistic about Jinan, many large companies and high-end talent at home and abroad have landed in the city for opportunities.

During the Conference of Great Business Partners 2018, a number of well-known companies from China and abroad, including Foxconn, JD, iFlytek and China Railway Construction Engineering, signed contracts with the city for a total of 29 key projects. The total investment for them came in at a staggering 87.98 billion yuan ($12.67 billion).

Elsewhere, during the Jinan Human Capital Industry Summit, 10 academicians and leading experts and scholars from home and abroad, including Tan Tieniu, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Ning Bin, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering; and Zhu Jiankang, an academician at the US National Academy of Sciences, were hired as special experts by the Jinan government to provide high-level intellectual support for the city.

During the Chinese-German SME Cooperation and Communication Conference, 27 business projects with a total investment of 21.44 billion yuan were signed. At the same time, 115 overseas companies and 130 Jinan groups reached preliminary business agreements.

Wu Weijie, vice-president of GE Digital's China operations, said his company is willing to help local companies in Jinan "go global". "We have more than 6,000 local suppliers in China," he said. "We are willing to cooperate with the Jinan government and local enterprises to enable local enterprises to improve their capabilities and quality in their global development."

Other leading business agree on the city's attractive features and its potential.

"The city has a strong sense of development, reform, innovation and openness, and we can feel Jinan's sincere desire to have talented people from all walks of life and companies to come to the city for development," said Bao Yueyang, president of China Development Press and chairman of the Development Research Think Tank of China, or DRTT.

To date, Jinan has actively developed a number of industries in the wake of a series of favorable policies and funding put in place, and is trying to make itself even more attractive on the global stage, officials said.

Jinan has been increasingly recognized by the world with a number of multinational enterprises settling in. [Photos provided to China Daily]