Leveraging abundant resources and a solid industrial foundation, Qingdao, a coastal city of East China's Shandong province, is poised to build an internationally influential marine sci-tech innovation center over three years. This year, Qingdao has formulated a three-year action plan (2025–27) to start a modern marine industry system with technological innovation and cultivating new marine productivity. The aim is to cultivate emerging industries such as marine equipment manufacturing and pharmaceuticals and bioproducts, accelerate future fields such as deep-sea exploration and marine electronic information, and upgrade its advantageous sectors such as marine fisheries and port shipping.  

"The action plan emphasizes new technologies, new business forms, and new models," said Meng Qingsheng, director of the Qingdao marine development bureau. Li Tianchuan, director of the Qingdao bureau of science and technology, said that Qingdao will add over 10 high-end marine innovation platforms, break through over 100 key marine technologies, attract more than 200 top professionals in marine innovation, and increase the number of marine high-tech enterprises to over 1,000 within three years. While focusing on the advancement of emerging industries, Qingdao is also setting the stage for future areas. For instance, construction is underway for Qingdao-based KingAgroot's marine biogene editing R&D and application project, with a total investment of 1.1 billion yuan; and the city has released its plan for a marine AI large model industry cluster. In the first three quarters of this year, Qingdao's fishery output value and production achieved a double harvest; the added value of its marine tourism surged by 7.4 percent year-on-year; and Qingdao Port's cargo throughput reached approximately 547 million metric tons, a year-on-year growth of 4.7 percent.

Leveraging abundant resources and a solid industrial foundation, Qingdao, a coastal city of East China's Shandong province, is poised to build an internationally influential marine sci-tech innovation center over three years. [Photo/Guanhai News]