China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone Qingdao Area (SDPFTZ Qingdao Area) recently issued the "Policies and Measures to Accelerate High-quality Development of the Advanced Manufacturing Industry in SDPFTZ Qingdao Area and Qingdao Sino-German Ecopark" (hereinafter referred to as the "Policies and Measures") to implement national, provincial, and municipal strategies on advancing manufacturing, promoting new industrialization, and accelerating high-quality development of key industrial chains and comprehensively enhance the high-end, intelligent, green and clustered development level of the manufacturing industry.
Enhancing Quality and Excellence to Drive High-end Manufacturing: The Policies and Measures outlines four key policies—supporting high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), encouraging technological upgrades, strengthening core competitiveness, and driving business scale growth. The aim is to bolster the gradient cultivation system, reinforce the principal role of enterprises in innovation, and advance product innovation, technology upgrades, and industrial transformation.
Digital Intelligence Empowerment Drives Smart Manufacturing: The Policies and Measures outlines three key measures—establishing intelligent manufacturing benchmarks, advancing digital economy upgrades, and accelerating digital transformation in SMEs, aiming to deeply integrate digital intelligence with advanced manufacturing, and elevate enterprise intelligence comprehensively.
Low-Carbon Leadership to Green Manufacturing: The Policies and Measures proposes two key initiatives—increasing the industry's "green content" and enhancing industrial energy efficiency. The goal is to foster a green and low-carbon transformation in enterprise production while promoting self-assessment integration across all levels of green manufacturing systems.
Strengthening Industrial Chains and Promoting Clusters: The Policies and Measures emphasizes three policies— giving full play to the leading role of leading enterprises, increasing support for chain companies, and nurturing key players in critical segments of the industrial chain. The aim is to motivate leading enterprises in the chain to enhance upstream and downstream collaboration, facilitate SMEs to secure positions within the industrial chains, and bolster the resilience and security of the industrial and supply chains.
In 2024, SDPFTZ Qingdao Area's advanced manufacturing sector maintained steady growth while improving quality, achieving an annual industrial output of RMB 81 billion. High-tech manufacturing output grew by 7.9% year-on-year. Two enterprises were selected into the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's first batch of Excellent Intelligent Factories, three enterprises made it onto the national green manufacturing list, two enterprises earned the provincial single champion enterprises in manufacturing, and two gained certification for the province's first (set) technical equipment. The area advanced the implementation of 29 ongoing technical transformation projects and completed critical projects like the technical transformation of the new generation Wuling Hongguang MINI EV and Wuling Zhiguang EV.
Moving forward, SDPFTZ Qingdao Area will deepen efforts in new industrialization, expedite the growth of New Quality Productive Forces, provide comprehensive life cycle services for enterprises, and maintain advanced manufacturing as the "ballast stone" and "engine" of regional economic development.
