Existing advantages

    HOME to 711 kilometers of coastline, Qingdao has a sea area of 12,200 square kilometers and 49 natural harbors.

    The output in the city’s ocean economy reached 168.3 billion yuan last year, accounting for more than 33 percent of the city’s GDP.

    Qingdao is home to China’s second-largest trade port, which ranks the seventh in the world in terms of cargo-handling capacity.

    In addition, the city has rich human resources in the research and development of ocean science and technology, and is home to the national demonstration industrial base of biomedicine, ship and ocean engineering.

    “These advantages give us confidence in building a ‘blue silicon valley’ in Qingdao,” said Wang Guangzheng, the city’s vice mayor.

    According to a plan unveiled in October last year, the “blue silicon valley” will include the science and technology city in Laoshan District, the main park of the high-tech zone in northern Jiaozhou Bay.

    The valley is expected to take initial shape in 2015.    

    Commercialization of

    sci-tech achievements

    Like most cities in China, Qingdao is also struggling with commercialization of research and development achievements.

    An academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Lei Jilin, said Qingdao lacks platforms to incubate and commercialize research and development achievements in ocean science and technology.

    In addition, the city is lacks key projects and leading enterprises which can take an initiative.

    To build a “blue silicon valley,” the city has been stepping up its efforts to commercialize research and development achievements.

    The city’s ocean instrument research institute has introduced the research and development in Ukraine and Russia to the city for commercialization, generating over 100 million yuan in the output of ocean-monitoring instrument production last year.     

    Innovation platforms

    Rich human resources and abundant research institutes will drive the development of the city’s ocean science and technology, as well as the deep-sea industry.

    A number of innovative platforms will lay a solid foundation for the city’s ambition to build a “blue silicon valley.”

    (Li Hao, Xu Jingeng, Song Xuechun)