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Qingdao promotes high-quality development

(chinadaily.com.cn) | 2021-11-17

A news conference was held on Nov 16 to introduce Qingdao's achievements in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects as well as promoting its high-quality development.

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The eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province boasts a vibrant economy. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

According to Qingdao officials, the city has reached a new developmental stage, with its GDP being in excess of 1 trillion yuan ($156.2 billion) since 2016. The city, which now has a permanent population of over 10 million, has also expanded its public budget revenue to over 100 billion yuan.

In the first three quarters of this year, Qingdao's GDP hit 1.03 trillion yuan, up 10.7 percent year-on-year, 0.9 percentage points higher than the national average and 0.8 percentage points higher than the provincial average.

In recent years, Qingdao has been ramping up efforts to further open up. The city is speeding up the construction of the China-SCO demonstration zone as a new platform for international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

By the end of 2020, the China-SCO demonstration zone had put into operation 49 projects with a total investment of 41.6 billion yuan.

The Qilu Eurasian freight train has made more than 1,100 trips from Qingdao. The city's sea-rail combined transport has been ranked the first among China's coastal ports for six consecutive years.

The city is working to expand international economic and trade cooperation. It has established sister city relations or friendly cooperative relations with 82 cities worldwide and maintained trade contacts with 229 countries and regions.

In 2020, the imports and exports value of Qingdao and its actual use of foreign investment accounted for about one-third of the province's total.

The city has attracted investments from 172 Fortune Global 500 companies and local enterprises have established overseas companies and institutions in 112 countries and regions worldwide.