Qingdao won the 10th place in the 2022 innovation capacity index ranking for national innovation-oriented cities, recently released by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China. This is the third consecutive year that Qingdao has ranked among the top ten.

Qingdao is carrying out the innovation-driven development strategy to build faster itself into an international innovation-oriented city. The “Fertile Soil Plan” aims to bolster cultivation of science and technology-based enterprises in tiers, national science and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises has numbered over 7,000, making up nearly one quarter of Shandong province’s total; the number of new and high-tech enterprises is expected to top 6,600, accounting for one third of Shandong province’s total; Qingdao is home to the most leading science and technology-based enterprises and little giant firms in science and technology, coverage of R&D institutions in industrial enterprises above designated scale has soared from 41% to 70%. Furthermore, Qingdao has initiated the “cloud R&D” mode in China, set up nearly 2,500 cloud R&D centers, and raked in a turnover of over RMB4bln in 2022 contracts for marine technology thanks to the plan to boost ocean-related enterprises. Qingdao ranked globally 34th by jumping 19 places and got the ninth place in China in the Global Innovation Index 2022 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, making Qingdao become the most progressive Chinese city for three straight years.  (Geng Tingting)

The north Jiaozhou Bay main park in Qingdao New and Hi-tech Development Zone highlights the vigor of innovation.