QINGDAO has lived up to its reputation as a “city full of brands” in the past five years by having 68 of the most renowned brands in China, according to the latest statistics from Qingdao Economic and Information Technology Committee.

    Qingdao has been home to 68 famous Chinese brands, 62 national household trademarks, 272 famous brands in Shandong Province and 401 famous Qingdao brands, all double the figures five years ago. The city has taken the lead among mainland cities with 270 famous brand enterprises contributing more than 50 percent of the cities’ total economic volume.

    Big famous brand enterprises have stepped up international expansion in recent years, becoming the main driving force to push the development of the city’s industrial economy. There are 21 such enterprises which have annual output of more than 5 billion yuan each.

    The city has formed clusters of famous enterprises with core technology in industries like home appliances, petrochemicals, auto and locomotive, as well as ship building, attracting a group of international branded enterprises like Coca-Cola, LG, Panasonic, Sanyo, Bombardier, Sumsung, Nestle and Lucent, which have in return raised the city’s international profile.

    With the improvement of innovative abilities, local enterprises have seen the value of their brands rise.

    According to the statistics released by Euromonitor, Haier now leads the international white goods and home appliance enterprises. Qingdao’s CSR Sifang Locomotives and Rolling Stock Co. has become a national industrial base for high-speed trains and Tsingtao Beer has seen its brand value increasing from 25.8 billion yuan in 2007 to 36.6 billion yuan.(Martin Li, Lin Gang)