Qingdao strives for high-quality development

City government subsidizes and rewards organizations to promote standardization.

By introducing incentive policies, enhancing training and giving more scope to the roles of companies and research institutes, Qingdao in East China's Shandong province has made great strides in standardization, which is bound to boost the city's high-quality development, officials said.

In 2019, the Qingdao government is offering some 20 million yuan ($2.83 million) in subsidies and rewards to enterprises and institutions to promote standardization.

Since 2008, Qingdao has set aside more than 97 million yuan to finance some 3,000 standardization projects across the city.

Qingdao strives for high-quality development

An aerial view reveals the city scope surrounding Fushan Bay of Qingdao, Shandong province. Famed for blue skies and beautiful beaches, the coastal city is going to hold the 2019 Qingdao Forum on International Standardization from Oct 27 to 29. Wang Wei / For China Daily

In February 2017, the city government released an administration policy on the subsidy and reward fund for standardization. It expanded the beneficiaries to social groups, enterprise alliances and education and training organizations.

Eleven districts and business areas across Qingdao have issued their own policies to subsidize and reward standardization projects.

Laoshan district is one of the pioneers promoting standardization in the city. The district introduced sweeping policies on subsidizing and rewarding standardization projects.

To further popularize standardization and establish a professional team for it, the city has organized forums under the guidance of three international standardization organizations.

They are the International Organization for Standardization, better known as the ISO; the International Electrotechnical Commission, or the IEC; and the International Telecommunication Union, also called the ITU.

By joining hands with the Standardization Administration of China and the ISO, the Qingdao government holds regular international standardization training classes.

From Aug 6 to 9, the latest session opened with the theme of "ISO Regional Training on Managing Effective National Mirror Committees".

A total of 34 people from nine countries, including China, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia, took apart. The members were from national standardization bodies, government departments, academic institutions, enterprises and nongovernmental organizations.

From May 12 to 14, Qingdao hosted the 2019 IEC standardization training and seminar. Senior staff members from the IEC shared their comprehensive knowledge of international standardization with participants.

Stimulated by the city government's incentive policies, enterprises based in Qingdao have made great gains in standardization, local officials said.

For instance, Qingdao-based home appliance giants Haier and Hisense are among the leading companies for international standardization.

Haier has put forward 98 proposals for the revision of international standards. It has led and participated in the revision of 530 national industrial standards.

The company has led the formulation of a new international standard for refrigerator function and achieved technological breakthroughs in the field of home appliances. It has 83 expert seats in the IEC and ISO.

Hisense believes that high-quality standards can help guarantee high-quality products and support its sustainable development. As such, it has led and participated in setting 28 international standards, 139 national standards and 198 sector and association standards.

"As a practitioner of standardization work, the Qingdao Institute of Standardization plays an active role," said Wu Rujun, head of the institute.

The institute is not the only one that has made contributions to the field of standardization. Qingdao University of Science and Technology is one of China's top scientific research and teaching institutes of the rubber tire industry.

The university has led and participated in the formulation and revision of more than 10 international standards and more than 50 national standards. It has contributed much to the research and development and the achievements of China's rubber technology.

To date, enterprises and institutions in Qingdao have helped formulate and revise 148 international standards, more than 1,300 national standards and more than 1,450 industry standards.

Qingdao's achievements in standardization has kept pace with the progress of China's international standardization.

Statistics show that China has taken charge of 89 ISO and IEC technical secretariats and 73 people have acted as chair or vice-chair of ISO and IEC technical committees. China has proposed and developed and published 611 ISO and IEC standards. It ranked fifth in the world in 2017 for its contributions to international standardization, according to the national standardization work conference in January last year.

China has signed 92 agreements for standardization cooperation with 33 countries and regions. It also issued 580 national standards in foreign languages in the fields of aerospace, steel, engineering machinery and household appliances. Some 100 Chinese standards have been promoted and applied in countries, such as Singapore, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

zhangdandan@chinadaily.com.cn