Qingdao embraces innovation-driven development

New business models highlighting innovation and cutting-edge technology have been fueling Qingdao's high-quality development, local authorities said.

Official data showed that in 2019, the total number of high-tech enterprises in Qingdao reached 3,829, and the output value of high-tech industry increased by 6.69 percent year-on-year. The output value of high-tech industries above the designated scale accounted for 53.33 percent of the city's total output of industries above the designated scale.

Local high-tech companies have joined the country's efforts to win the battle against the novel coronavirus pneumonia. In a period of just three days, Qingdao Navid Biotechnology Co developed rapid testing kits that can detect the virus in half an hour. Qingdao Webull Intelligent Technology Co donated disinfection robots to several hospitals to perform multiple forms of disinfection in almost every corner of quarantine wards.

The eastern coastal city is ramping up efforts to advance innovation-driven development and promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation in a bid to turn it into a leading technological innovation base north of the Yangtze River.

The city has implemented measures and policies to foster a strong ecosystem for entrepreneurship and innovation, focusing on business management, capital operation, personnel education, industry support, platform construction and service improvement.

Zhongguancun, sometimes called China's Silicon Valley, a technology hub in Haidian district, Beijing, has also joined Qingdao in its quest to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.