Qingdao's Hisense plans to step up efforts to establish online and in-person recycling and disposal channels for discarded home appliances. [Photo/Guanhai News]

East China's Shandong province recently issued an action plan for the upgrading of large-scale equipment and the trade-in of consumer goods, which will bring new opportunities for urban industrial development to Qingdao.

The plan explicitly puts forward the "thorough implementation of intelligent transformation." For Qingdao, which is a leader in industrial internet, this will provide an opportunity for the industrial-scale application of digital transformation.

Qingdao will take advantage of the continuously-growing digital transformation support system to further promote the deepening of digital transformation as it carries out industrial equipment upgrades.

This year, Qingdao will further expand digital integration, aiming to push over 1,000 enterprises towards increased intelligence, reform, and networking. Additionally, it aims to cultivate over 50 intelligent factories, digitalized workshops, and automated production lines, establish more than two "industrial brains" and over 10 "star factories," and build national-level 5G factories and digital leading enterprises.

In the field of trade-ins for consumer goods, Qingdao will focus on both innovative high-quality supply from the industrial end and effective mechanisms to boost consumer demand.

Qingdao has unique industrial advantages in the large-scale renewal of equipment and the trade-in of consumer goods — especially household appliances or white goods. The city is home to a number of renowned home appliance enterprises such as Haier, Hisense, and Aucma as well as new energy vehicle brands like FAW Jiefang, FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Beijing Automobile Works, and Chery Automobile.

As a new round of consumer goods upgrades begins, leading enterprises in these sectors in Qingdao will also usher in new opportunities to increase variety, improve quality, and build brands, accelerating innovation and enhancing the supply capacity to the end market, promoting the transition to home furnishings and kitchen appliances.