In order to further stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises and entrepreneurs and boost their confidence in enterprise, Sino-German Ecopark held the 2024 Qingdao Pilot Free Trade Zone · Sino-German Ecopark Enterprise Development Conference on 5 March, to commend the outstanding enterprises that have made outstanding contributions to the economic development of the zone in the past year. At the conference, Qingdao Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Service Base Free Trade Service Station was officially unveiled and Qingdao Pilot Free Trade Zone Enterprise Development Alliance was established, both of which will create a better environment and quality ecology for enterprise development. Mr. GENG Tao, member of Standing Committee of CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee, vice mayor of Qingdao, and Mr. GAO Shanwu, deputy secretary of the Working Committee of West Coast New District, director of Qingdao Pilot Free Trade Zone Management Committee, director of Qingdao Sino-German Ecopark Management Committee attended the conference.
Focusing on the industrial and talent needs of the zone, the Alliance, based on the existing 226 member units, invited 285 experts and talents to set up five service teams, namely: International Talent Volunteer Team, FTZ Public Welfare Lecturers, Sunday Engineers Mutual Support Centre, Expert Think Tank, and Frontier Media Station, which will provide in-depth services to member enterprises and help them develop with higher quality and in a more efficient way.
Business environment is the soil for the survival and development of enterprises. At the conference, the leaders of Qingdao Private Economy Development Bureau licenced the "Qingdao Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Service Base Free Trade Service Station". The FTZ Service Station will set up an exclusive service desk in the Qingdao FTZ Government Service Hall and provide one-stop services for SMEs around the clock through certified "service specialists".
The high-quality development of Qingdao Pilot Free Trade Zone can not be achieved without outstanding enterprises in various fields. In the previous period, Qingdao Pilot Free Trade Zone and Sino-German Ecopark Management Committee granted nine awards to 100 outstanding enterprises for the 2023, including "Outstanding Contribution to Tax Payment Award", "Ivy League Enterprises Award", "Outstanding Contribution to Employment Award", "Outstanding Contribution to Advanced Manufacturing Award", "Outstanding Contribution to Scientific and Technological Innovation Award", "Outstanding Contribution to International Trade Award", "Outstanding Contribution to Modern Service Industry Award", "High Growth Enterprise Award", and "Entrepreneurial Rising Star Award". At the conference, leaders of relevant central units stationed in Qingdao, municipal departments and FTP management committee jointly gave the awards to representatives of the honoured enterprises.
"Policy package" to Help Enterprises to be Bigger and Stronger
At the same time, in order to better serve the enterprise, help enterprises to be bigger and stronger, the conference also released the 2024 industrial policies and the formation of seven key initiatives around materialization of policy, labour guarantee, approval services, etc., and continue to safeguard the development of enterprises.
For example, in the field of advanced manufacturing, the Trial Policy on Supporting the High-Quality Development of Advanced Manufacturing Science and Technology Innovation has been issued to support the upgrading of intelligent enterprises. The highest award of 2 million will be given to the national and provincial intelligent manufacturing benchmark enterprises, intelligent factories and digital workshops. Qingdao municipal projects will be provided with supporting facilities according to 50 percent of the municipal awards. To strengthen the construction of high-end innovation platform, manufacturing innovation centres and key laboratories in the national, provincial and municipal level will be given a maximum award of 5 million and 4 million yuan each respectively.
In the field of integrated circuits, which is a key immerging industry, FTP took the lead among the city in establishing the first integrated circuit industrial park. With the development of a number of rules for the implementation of policies, FTP encourages increasement in investment in R&D, by giving enterprises support of 30% of the annual investment, reaching a maximum of 12 million yuan. According to the actual amount of investment in fixed assets of the project, a certain percentage will be offered as incentives with a maximum of 100 million yuan. 10% will be offered for projects with actual arrival of capital more than 100 million yuan, and 5% will be offered for those under that amount.
