With the rapid development of advanced equipment manufacturing, high-tech industries and modern services, Qingdao, a coastal city in Shandong, is becoming an industrial leader.

"Qingdao will take advantage of its high technologies, talent pool and innovative strength to pilot Shandong's plan to foster high-end industry clusters in the Jiaodong Peninsula," Xia Geng, mayor of Qingdao, told China Daily.

At present, Qingdao's equipment manufacturing industry accounts for 31.3 percent of the city's industrial sales revenues. High-tech industries account for 46.5 percent of Qingdao's total industrial output value.

In 2009, the output value of high-tech industries in the city was more than 445 billion yuan, up 15.7 percent from the year before.

According to a plan unveiled last December, Qingdao will accelerate development of high-end industries. Among the key industries listed in the plan are marine research and development, biological engineering and new materials; and advanced equipment manufacturing.

Planners estimate the output value of the city's advanced equipment manufacturing industry will reach 540 billion yuan by 2012.

Other predictions place future high-tech industrial output value at an excess of 650 billion yuan.

Finance, logistics and similar high value-added services are also expected to grow, with output value hitting 190 billion yuan.

Attracting investors

Qingdao has already attracted many domestic and foreign investments.

According to the Qingdao Bureau of Commerce, 42 well-known domestic companies - including Datang Power, China Railway Logistics, China Resources, Poly, and Shenzhen Huaqiang - invested in 65 projects in the city last year, contributing a total of 106.8 billion yuan.

In addition, 83 of the world's top 500 enterprises have invested in 175 projects within Qingdao. The projects involve high-end industries such as new energy, new materials, bio-medicine, shipbuilding, marine science and technology, and modern services.

As a result, a number of cutting-edge products have been produced. For example, CSR Qingdao Sifang Rolling Stock Co Ltd has developed trains that reach speeds up to 350 km/h.

Qingdao is also an important manufacturing base for ships, household electrical appliances and light helicopters.

And a number of high-end industrial parks have developed rapidly in Qingdao. Its high-tech industrial zone saw the establishment of 21 large projects last year with a total investment of 6.3 billion yuan.

Large projects

Qingdao North Ship Heavy Industry Group invested 7.4 billion yuan in a huge shipbuilding and repair facility last year in Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone. The facility was immediately followed by several large part manufacturing projects, each with an investment of more than 2 billion yuan.

The zone is now the largest shipbuilding and repair base in China, with an annual shipbuilding capacity of 2 million dead weight tons.

In March, construction began on a new semiconductor lighting and display production base in Jiaozhou Bay New Area, with a total investment of 18 billion yuan. It is expected to lead to the formation of an industrial chain with an annual output value of more than 80 billion yuan in five to eight years.

Just a month later, China's first large-scale sapphire LED chip production project became operational in Qingdao high-tech zone, helping efforts to minimize reliance on imported products.

Now, construction of Eastern Everbright Co's communication plastic optical fiber project is underway. It is expected to occupy 40 percent of the global plastic optical fiber market share.

Admiral Oversea Corporation, a global display manufacturing giant, will build its 10th largest global production base in Qingdao. The project will be completed in 2011 and have an annual production capacity of 2 million units.

Qingdao is home to 27 well-known Chinese trademarks and 68 famous Chinese brands.