Hosted by the Shandong Provincial Government, as well as co-organized by the Shandong Development and Reform Commission and Shandong Port Group (SPG), the Conference on Promoting Port-Industry-City Integration in Shandong kicked off in Qingdao on April 23.

The event is dedicated to advancing the deep integration of port areas, industrial parks, and urban areas to better help the province's campaigns to replace old growth drivers with new ones, promote green and low-carbon high-quality development, as well as serve the new development pattern.

During the event, SPG and its subsidiaries signed 61 key industrial park projects under the port-industry-city integration model with 10 cities in Shandong. It also set up a fund cluster for the industrial development of port-industry-city integration.

In recent years, Shandong has formulated and released the port-industry-city integrated development plan in order to guide the province's port-industry-city integrated development efforts. Since the beginning of the year, more than 200 port-industry-city integration projects started construction or were put into operation, with a combined investment of over 150 billion yuan ($21.67 billion). This has made port-industry-city integration a significant force driving economic growth.

SPG has implemented instructions from the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and the Shandong Provincial Government to promote port-industry-city integration. It has invested over 160 billion yuan, attracted 11.1 billion yuan in investment, provided job positions for over 6,000 people, as well as contributed over 40 billion yuan in taxes, up 63.4 percent from 2019 when the company was founded.

Taking the conference as an opportunity, SPG plans to integrate into the province's port-industry-city integrated development planning and strengthen cooperation with cities in sea-rail combined transport, as well as the construction of chain-style industrial parks and city development. It aims to better serve regional socio-economic growth and make contributions to helping Shandong build itself into a modern and strong socialist province in the new era. 

The Conference on Promoting Port-Industry-City Integration in Shandong kicks off in Qingdao on April 23. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]