Pingdu, a county-level city in Qingdao, Shandong province, has remained stable economic growth in the first half of the year, with government policies focusing on ensuring employment and livelihoods.

Official data showed that in the first half year, the city's fixed asset investment, one of the main drivers of economic growth, increased by 15 percent, ranking second among districts in Qingdao. In the first five months of this year, its imports and exports totaled 7.75 billion yuan ($1.11 billion), up 17.5 percent.

High-rise buildings in the urban area of Pingdu city [Photo/qingdaonews.com]

Pingdu has been ramping up efforts to strengthen the employment-first policy with comprehensive measures.

Since the beginning of this year, a total of 24,000 jobs have been offered, and 100 million yuan in employment assistance and unemployment insurance benefits have been issued, benefiting 28,000 people in Pingdu.

The city continues to promote both poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. This year it has allocated a total of 130 million yuan to ensure assistance is provided to anyone experiencing temporary difficulties.

Pingdu also invested 760 million yuan and built 15 new primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in the first half year.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pingdu has taken online measures to promote business and investment.

In the first half of this year, it signed 63 key industrial projects with a total investment of 54.6 billion yuan, up 16.7 percent and 45.2 percent respectively from the same period last year.

It has taken a slew of measures to help businesses resume production and tide over the difficulties caused by the pandemic. Pingdu has reduced taxes and fees by 140 million yuan, reduced social insurance by 240 million yuan, granted export tax rebates of 550 million yuan, and issued special bonds worth 1.3 billion yuan.

It has also increased financial support to keep business operations stable and ensured that micro, small, and medium businesses have significantly better access to loans and that overall financing costs drop markedly.