Qingdao is a prosperous and highly developed coastal city which has developed around the Jiaozhou Bay. Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy, Qingdao has expanded its east and west to the bay. With the rapid economic development, the city’s old center is booming but has become saturated.

The location of Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone. [China.org.cn]?

The implementation of the “further development around Jiaozhou Bay” strategy proposed by Qingdao municipal government initiated an upgrade of urban layout and industrial structure adjustment. Qingdao is going to construct the third-generation ecological and high-tech new town to the north of Jiaozhou Bay – the last undeveloped land in the city.

Vice President of CPPCC Qingdao Municipal Committee, Director-General of Administrative Committee, Qingdao National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, Liu Wei recently gave an exclusive interview to China.org.cn.

Liu Wei, Vice President of CPPCC Qingdao Municipal Committee, Director-General of Administrative Committee, Qingdao National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone

China.org.cn: I understand for the development of the high-tech zone, the administrative committee has three focuses and is going to improve service in four aspects. Could you give us some details about that?

Liu Wei: Yes, we have three focuses; planning and construction, investment and business attraction and mechanism innovation.

The high-tech zone insists on “saturated investment” as the core principle of the planning and construction. By saturated investment, I mean Qingdao government gives full financial support for the development of high-tech zone. In 2009, we invested more than 5 billion yuan (732 million dollars) for infrastructure construction.

What’s worth mentioning here is our integral pipeline system. In the high-tech zone, you will never see a manhole cover on the road. All the pipe lines such as the water supply, electricity, steam are underground where machine shop truck can go in to mend the complex structure. We have finished 24km of this kind of road in the high-tech zone and the total length will reach 70 km which will be number one in China. Now we have resumed the advanced integral pipeline system to build the high-tech zone into an environmental-friendly new town.

Secondly the high-tech zone is trying to attract high-end industries with the feature of “high-end, light and special”. High-end industries are those on the upper end of the value chain. Light are industries of light structure and low consumption of resources. Special industries are those of differentiation. In 2009, 22 projects were signed with a total investment of more than 6.3 billion yuan (around 922 million dollars).

Thirdly, the high-tech zone will use mechanism innovation aiming to strengthen development.

We are also going to improve service in four aspects. First is the service for technological innovation and business creation. We will emphasize on the public service platform construction such as business incubators and accelerators. Second is the service for financing. We have set up an investment company to strengthen cooperation with financial institutions. Third is the service for investment. We will build a flattened investment service mechanism to work effectively and coordinately. Fourth is the service for human resources. Online human resources market will be built to attract talents from all over the world to work in the high-tech zone.

China.org.cn: After one year’s construction, the northern Jiaozhou Bay area of the high-tech zone has initially appeared to be a modern ecological new town. I know 2010 will be the year of environmental construction. Please explain to us how the high-tech zone is going to promote the environmental construction?

Liu Wei: We are going to do six tasks. First is to build the supporting infrastructure environment. By the end of 2010, the infrastructure construction in the key areas will finish and the public affairs service and management will further improve.

Secondly, we will build ecological landscape environment. We will preserve and cultivate the existing wetland in the area and build a wetland park. This will lay a good ecological foundation for the new town.

Thirdly, the business development environment will have breakthroughs. We will build office buildings, financial centers and apartments to guarantee a comfortable working and living environment. The business attraction will focus on modern service industry such as finance, travelling, trade, real estate and logistics to create a good business environment.

Fourthly, we will optimize the environment for government affairs. We will build a good soft environment for project introduction and investment service.

Fifthly is to improve the environment for technological innovation and business creation. A platform connecting the government, enterprises, universities and research institutions as well as industrial organizations will be built to promote technological upgrade.

Last but not least we will also build a good social and human environment for the all-round development of the zone.

China.org.cn: Does the global financial crisis have any impact on the construction of the high-tech zone? During the post-crisis era, have you set up any strategies for the long-term development of the high-tech zone?

Liu Wei: In May 2008, the northern Jiaozhou Bay area of the high-tech zone formally began its construction. We know it was the global financial crisis. However, we turned the bad luck into good fortune for the high-tech zone. We took advantage of the time when the raw materials were cheap and loan interests were low and made saturated investment.

Now we have finished a large part of the infrastructure construction and are waiting for investments and projects. We believe that with the recovery of global economy, more and more enterprises will choose to land in our zone for its convenient transportation, good ecological environment, great business atmosphere and potential for further development.

For the long-term development, we will focus on “blue economy” and “low carbon economy”. As an area just north of Jiaozhou Bay, the high-tech zone has special advantages on the development of blue economy. We will further explore the opportunity especially to do research on the sea water desalinization.

We are going to build the high-tech zone into an example of low carbon economy in Qingdao. Since the high-tech zone is still under construction, we could implement the principle right from the start. Now the low carbon economy has become a guiding concept in both the production and living in Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone.

A bird's view of the water landscape in Qingdao High-tech Industrial Development Zone. [China.org.cn]