Laoshan district in Qingdao, Shandong, emerges as a major financial hub, centered around the city's Jinjialing Financial District. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Laoshan district in Qingdao, Shandong, has blossomed as a major financial hub centered around the city's Jinjialing Financial District. Over the past decade, the district has attracted more than 1,300 financial and quasi-financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies, and securities firms, with around 120 fund managers overseeing over 700 funds totaling nearly 90 billion yuan ($12.43 billion).

Relying on the Jinjialing Financial District, Laoshan has focused on empowering technology and industrial innovation through finance by leveraging its comparative advantages in wealth management, venture capital, and digital finance. It is optimizing the unification of financial resources and rolling out a modern fin-tech system, which has provided strong financial support for cultivating and expanding new production capacities.

With a technology venture capital matrix led by government funds and supported by private capital, Laoshan district continuously strengthens corporate investment. In terms of government funds, it promotes the settlement of government funds, and guided co-invested funds to invest in over 560 projects with a total investment exceeding 15.3 billion yuan. Among these, 280 local projects received 7.7 billion yuan in investment, including four listed companies like TGOOD and Thunderobot, and a batch of specialized firms like Harwars.

Regarding local private capital, Laoshan district has guided local investment institutions to link with nationally renowned investment institutions, promoting cooperation between Haier Capital and well-known investment institutions such as Hillhouse Capital Group and CDH Investments. They have invested in over 400 projects, with specialized enterprises accounting for 70 percent, and have nurtured more than 70 gazelle and unicorn companies.

Specifically for the virtual reality industry, Laoshan district has established a 500 million yuan seed fund, a 2 billion yuan industrial fund, and a 3 billion yuan social venture capital fund to finance different enterprises at various stages.

Laoshan district is also creating a new model of collaborative service for enterprise listing with "government + securities + banks." It has partnered with financial institutions like Zhongtai Securities and China Merchants Bank to regularly conduct seminars and training to help companies overcome the challenges of connecting with the capital market.