QINGDAO has been striving to become China’s “blue silicon” capital since it was given a pioneering role in a national plan to develop the marine economy of the Shandong Peninsula.

    “To build ‘blue silicon’ means that Qingdao will make efforts to develop its competitive ocean industries, through which the city can achieve its transformation for further development and make contribution to the development of the marine economy in the Shandong Peninsula,” said Li Qun, Qingdao’s Party chief.

    The city will establish ocean technology research and development centers, as well as an ocean ecology protection area, in areas like Shinan, Laoshan and Jimo.

    In the next five years, the city plans to invest a total of 600 billion yuan on more than 300 projects for “blue economy.”

    In addition, the city has made a decision to spend 10 billion yuan on the establishment of the country’s first “blue economy” fund to introduce large projects and push their construction.

    With full support from the government, national innovation platforms in ocean science and technology, such as a national deep-sea base and a national ocean science and technology laboratory, will be located in the city.

    With the acceleration of the construction of “blue silicon,” the city is becoming an “incubation center” for ocean scientific research.

    “The city will strive to facilitate a better connection between research institutions and market to inspire more scientific research,” said Li.

    Scientific research institutions are scattered throughout the city and less than 20 percent of their research has been applied, according to Li.

    In addition, the city will add to efforts to introduce professionals into the ocean field. It plans to introduce more than 10 international pace-setters in the field of ocean science in two to three years.

    (Li Hao, Lin Gang)