The eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to become an international innovation city through cooperative platforms, a slew of supportive policies and high-level global innovation activities.

The 2020 Innostars International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held in the city on Dec 29, with 60 projects featuring cutting-edge products from the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Israel, Russia, Japan, South Korea and other countries seeking cooperation opportunities in Qingdao.

The 2020 Innostars International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is held in Qingdao on Dec 29. [Photo/dzwww.com]

The competition marked a successful conclusion to Qingdao's international scientific and technological cooperation in 2020. It also sets the stage for bigger plans in 2021, said local officials.

By leveraging national strategies such as the China-SCO demonstration zone and the China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Qingdao has entered a new stage of opening up to the outside world.

Over the past year, Qingdao has taken multiple measures to join hands with SCO member states, countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, Germany, Japan and other countries and regions to promote the construction of major international platforms for scientific and technological cooperation.

The SCO Member States Technology Transfer Center is unveiled on Dec 10 in Qingdao. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The SCO Member States Technology Transfer Center was unveiled on Dec 10 at the Qingdao International Technology Transfer Conference. The center is the first platform of its kind in the country which focuses on international scientific and technological cooperation.

In addition, the ongoing Sino-German Youth Academy of Sciences project aims to build a new platform for international exchange and cooperation across disciplines, institutions and cultures.

Qingdao's Sino-Japanese Science City project, which is designed to forge an international innovation ecosystem for scientific and technological cooperation between China and Japan, and for the transformation and industrialization of Japan's cutting-edge technologies in China, has also been launched.

Today, the city has 19 State-level international science and technology cooperation bases, five provincial ones and 123 municipal ones.

The coastal city of Qingdao is aiming to become an international powerhouse in innovation. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]