According to the recently released Shandong Provincial Health and Wellness Industry Development Plan (2023-2027), Shandong Province will set up a health and wellness industry development pattern featuring three poles, three circles, five zones and comprehensive regional upgrade. Qingdao has been charged with significant responsibilities to act as one of the three development poles, give full play to the Jiaodong marine health industry circle and prioritize traditional Chinese medicine.

Among the three poles, namely Jinan, Qingdao and Yantai, Qingdao will strive to develop marine bio-pharmaceutics, genetic technology, high-end medical equipment, physical fitness and rehabilitation, and build itself into a domestically famous and internationally influential bay area in regard to marine featured bio-pharmaceutics and rehabilitation industries. In the three circles, namely the provincial capital economic circle, the Jiaodong economic circle and the Southern Shandong economic circle, Qingdao, known as an important city in the Jiaodong economic circle, will focus on marine bio-pharmaceutics, biological products, high-end medical equipment and wellness tourism, among other fields, integrate eastwards with Japan, South Korea and Northeast Asia, boost the “wild goose queue-shaped” colony of high-end medical equipment manufacturing and the cluster area of modern medicine trading. Shandong Province will assist Qingdao in enhancing its R&D capacity for marine bio-pharmaceutics and building a RMB100bln-level modern medicine industry cluster. In terms of inclusive cooperation, Qingdao will open the China-Japan-South Korea Maritime Expressway, and hold annually the international big health industry expo to put up a platform for interaction and exhibition.  (Huang Fei)