A TOTAL of 48 projects with total investment of 110 billion yuan were signed at a business introduction meeting in Beijing recently to promote the city’s industrial upgrading. The city made more than 500 handbooks that introduced the projects. All copies were taken by State-owned companies and top private companies. “Qingdao is targeting becoming a leading blue economy center in Shandong Peninsula and a ‘blue silicon valley,’ which provides great opportunities for the development of new industries,” said Deng Xiandong, general manager of Datang Group. The projects are mainly in new industries such as information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy and new material and modern service industries such as industrial design and venture investment. Among these, Datang Group plans to invest 34 billion yuan in five years to cooperate with the city in power, seawater desalination and new energy, while China Unicom will invest 5.7 billion yuan to set up a research institute of information and telecommunication. As many State-owned enterprises and top private companies plan to speed up their industrial upgrading, the city has started introducing key projects by the companies this year to encourage their development. The city introduced 113 projects in new industries with total investment of 46.5 billion yuan. Thirty-three projects are in operation and are expected to make revenue of 17.6 billion yuan. Another 30 projects will be signed with Qingdao, mainly in six new industries such as information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new material, new energy, biological medicine and energy saving. These projects will also help promote the city’s development in industrial design and service outsourcing areas. A total of 683 projects were signed in the past three years. Some 400 projects with 87.3 billion yuan investment are now in operation. So far, 337 projects are located in the city’s six main industrial parks, 227 of which are now in operation. The total output value of the 53 key industrial areas now accounts for more than 50 percent of the city’s total. (Wang Yuanyuan, Lin Gang)  | 