Business Environment

1. Location
Jinan, one of the core areas of the Shandong Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Replacing Old Growth Drivers with New Ones, is the capital city of Shandong province and renowned as the City of Springs. As the central city on the south wing of the Bohai Rim, it is one of the 15 sub-provincial cities in the country and the political, economic, cultural and financial center of Shandong province.

Bordering the Yangtze River Delta Economic Circle to the south and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Economic Zone to the north, neighboring the Bohai Economic Rim in the east and the Central Plains Economic Zone in the west, and located in the Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration, Jinan city is where five major national economic circles meet.

2. Infrastructure
Jinan has mature infrastructure due to its regular upgrading of its port, roads and communication networks.

Jinan is one of the top 10 regional passenger transport centers and one of the top 16 national network-level railway hubs. Its high-speed trains lead to 23 provinces and municipalities and over 200 cities throughout China.

By the end of 2017, the total length of the city's roads reached 12,856 kilometers, an increase of 1 percent over the previous year. The expressway length of the city totaled 488.5 km, increasing by 5.7 percent year-on-year.

Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport had some 150 domestic and international airlines flying to 82 cities by the end of 2017, including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Los Angeles, Milan in Italy, Tokyo and Seoul. The passenger throughput of the airport in 2017 reached 14.32 million, a year-on-year growth of 23.3 percent, while the cargo handling capacity was 95,000 tons. It is estimated that in 2020 passenger throughput will reach 15 million passengers and cargo handling capacity will reach 150,000 tons.

Besides, many infrastructure projects related to water conservancy and transport have been launched or completed. For example, Jinan is now implementing a project to resume the navigation of the Xiaoqing River, a river originating from spring water in Jinan and meandering over 200 km to Bohai Bay. An inland port – Jinan Port – is also being built on the Xiaoqing River, which is set to be a comprehensive cargo transport port.

3. Economic Development
Jinan has been accelerating its conversion of new and old kinetic energy in recent years in an effort to improve the international competitiveness of its economy.

Its GDP reached 720.2 billion yuan ($104.38 billion) in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, while GDP per capita was 98,967 yuan, an increase of 6.6 percent year-on-year. Per capita disposable income of urban dwellers amounted to 46,642 yuan, with that of country dwellers reaching 16,594 yuan.

Jinan also attaches importance to an innovation-driven development strategy. There were 527 research and development (R&D) organizations founded by industrial enterprises above designated size, 27 national-level technical centers, 153 provincial-level engineering laboratories and research centers in the city by the end of 2017.

The output value of Jinan's 656 hi-tech enterprises above the designated size in 2017 reached 266.12 billion yuan, a growth rate of 20.1 percent from 2016 and accounting for 45.15 percent of the industrial output of enterprises above the designated size, 1.5 percentage points higher than that of 2016. The prime operating revenue of the city's hi-tech industry in 2017 totaled 87.95 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8 percent while its added value increased by 20.9 percent.