News from Xinhua News Agency Client-side in Qingdao, December 8th (Reporter Zhang Xudong) In the past year after Shandong Province has issued the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Integrated Development of the Jiaodong Economic Circle, Qingdao, Yantai, Weifang, Weihai, and Rizhao have worked together to coordinate development resources, and strive to build a regional development community with complete cooperation mechanism, efficient flow of elements, strong development vitality, and significant radiation effects.

With more accessible and faster transportation, gradually coordinated and co-advanced industry, deepened and expanded opening up, more convenient & sharing life, and joint protection and governance of environment...The five cities presented high scores for the integration of Jiaodong Economic Circle at the Jiaodong Economic Circle Integration Promotion Conference held on the 8th, and strived to build Shandong's high-quality development engine.

(Image source: Qingdao Daily)

"3+N" builds a solid foundation for integrated development

On May 7 this year, at the Jiaodong Economic Circle Integration Promotion Conference held by the Shandong Provincial Government, the main party and government leaders of Yantai, Weifang, Weihai, and Rizhao respectively led teams to Qingdao for connection, and signed a cooperation agreement or memorandum with Qingdao City to fully promote integrated development. Qingdao City takes the lead in establishing the "3+N" mechanism to promote the synergy and linkage of the Jiaodong Economic Circle and accelerate its rise.

3 refers to the “decision-coordination-implementation” mechanism, establish a symposium mechanism composed of the main principals of the five cities in Jiaodong, as the highest-level decision-making review body of them; establish a joint meeting system for the integrated development of the Jiaodong Economic Circle, as the five cities’ integrated development coordinating agency; under the joint meeting, there will be a joint conference office, a municipal integrated development office and various work special offices as the integrated development executive agency.

Since September 3, personnel from the five cities of Jiaodong will work together in Qingdao to coordinate and solve major problems in integrated development, and promote its orderly implementation.

N refers to a number of specific implementation mechanisms. At present, the cultural tourism, administrative approval, education, technology and other relevant departments of the five cities have led the establishment of 17 alliances in the Jiaodong Economic Circle, including cultural tourism, elderly services, medical security, innovation and entrepreneurship, and signed 20 cooperation agreements in the fields of finance, administrative service approval, emergency response, and legal integration.

In addition, the financial, natural planning, and taxation departments of the five cities have established a normalized connection mechanism, and the cultural, tourism, sports, and financial departments have established a normalized interaction mechanism. For example, the 2020 Qingdao·China Wealth Forum, Qingdao·Yantai Capital and Industrial Project Cooperation Conference, Oriental Fashion Season·The 20th China (Qingdao) International Fashion Week and other activities are all organized by the five cities of Jiaodong.

The 20th China (Qingdao) International Fashion Week and other activities are held by the five cities of Jiaodong. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng)

The five cities also held a joint meeting on joint protection and governance of the ecological environment, signed the Cooperation Framework Agreement on Jiaodong Economic Circle Integrated Development Ecological Environment Joint Protection and Governance", and focused on promoting joint prevention and control of air pollution, environmental law enforcement of administrative boundaries, water pollution control, and emergent environmental incidents, so as to speed up the process of joint protection and governance on track and form a normal state.

The integration of the Jiaodong Economic Circle begins

In less than a year, the integration of the Jiaodong Economic Circle has started in an all-round way, which has achieved remarkable results in terms of transportation convenience, coordinated industrial development, deepening open cooperation, and joint environmental improvement.

Wendeng-Laiyang Expressway opened to traffic at the end of September, Qingdao Port, Yantai Port, and Weifang Port have deepened cooperation with each other and opened new domestic trade container routes "Qingdao-Weifang" and "Weifang-Weihai", and Weifang-Laiyang high-speed rail opened to traffic officially......

In the process of the integrated development of the Jiaodong Economic Circle, the five cities signed the Memorandum on the Integrated Development of Jiaodong Peninsula Transportation to steadily improve port capacity, continuously optimize aviation layout, accelerate and increase backbone networks such as railways, highways, and urban railway systems, and further improve the accessibility and coverage of traffic facilities.

On November 26, the Weifang-Laixi section of Shandong Wei-Rong Highspeed Railway (“Weifang-Laixi High-speed Railway”) went into operation. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng)

In terms of industrial coordination, the five cities have jointly created the "Jiaodong Youli" cultural and creative brand, and cooperated in activities such as the 2020 Jiaodong Peninsula Industrial Design Promotion Season. Nanshan Group, Haier COSMOPlat and Rongcheng Taixiang Food and other enterprises in the five cities have cooperated together.

The five cities worked hard to promote the construction of the Weifang Linkage Innovation Zone in the Qingdao area of the Shandong Free Trade Zone. Qingdao Customs has innovated the "advance declaration" model, and took the lead in piloting the "two-step declaration" and "two-stage access" reforms, simplifying the operation process of the port link, and improving the level of facilitation of customs clearance at Jiaodong Port.

The five cities have also pioneered a new model of "regional integrated administration" for government services in Shandong Province, and initiated integrated cooperation projects such as elderly care services and medical security. At present, all matters such as the online migration of household registration, processing of resident ID cards in different places, mutual recognition and loans of housing provident funds, application of motor vehicle driving licenses in different places, and the online settlement of hospitalization and medical treatment in different places have all been realized in the five cities in Jiaodong area.

In terms of joint environmental protection and governance, the main part of the Weihe comprehensive management project has been completed, the Weifang Xiashan Reservoir strategic water source quality improvement and protection project has been approved with government special bond funds, and Yantai and Weihai strengthened the information sharing and technical exchanges for forest fire prevention and forestry pest prevention and control work.

Create a high-quality development engine

According to the national and Shandong Province regional coordinated development strategy, the integrated development of the Jiaodong Economic Circle will use market logic and the strength of capital to innovate systems and mechanisms, build a platform, create an ecosystem, take responsibility, and provide multiple services to create a high-quality development engine.

The five cities of Jiaodong will lead high-quality development with open innovation, seize major opportunities in the reconstruction of the global industrial chain, work from both sides of supply and demand, and build a vitality generation system with diversified development body, industrial ecological iteration, optimized business environment, and powerful urban service cultural ecological support.

Relying on the Haier COSMOPlat, the five cities of Jiaodong will promote the implementation of platform projects for small and medium-sized enterprises, promote the integration of upstream and downstream of large and small enterprises in the industrial supply chain, and focus on promoting the strong cooperation between COSMOPlat and such leading companies as Yantai CIMC Raffles, Weifang Weichai Group, Weihai Triangle Group and Rizhao Steel Holding Group to realize vertical layout and deep enabling in the industry.

In addition, the five cities of Jiaodong will jointly build important open gateways and land-sea transportation corridors in the Yellow River Basin. Rely on the two high-level open platforms of SCO Demonstration Zone and the Pilot Free Trade Zone, highlight the role of Shandong Port Group, and unit the "dry ports" of cities along the Yellow River Basin and leading logistics enterprises to build a land-sea development alliance in the Yellow River Basin.

A corner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Demonstration Zone. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Demonstration Zone)

Coordinating the construction of China-Japan (Qingdao) Local Cooperation Development Demonstration Zone, China-Korea (Yantai) Industrial Park, Weihai China-Korea Free Trade Zone Local Economic Cooperation Demonstration Zone, etc., the five cities of Jiaodong Economic Circle will build a China-Japan-Korea international cooperation platform and rely on Shandong Free Trade Pilot Area in Qingdao and Yantai to seek national support to open up a "Japan-Korea Service Trade Consumption Special Zone".

With a view to alleviating the problem of water shortage in the Jiaodong Peninsula, the five cities will coordinate the storage and use of water resources, combine with the construction of the National South-to-North Water Transfer Jiaodong Continuation Project, accelerate the start of the planning and construction of government-financed reservoir, and coordinate the resolution of project approvals, land planning adjustments, implementation of land indicators, water rights allocation, construction financing and other issues.

Compared with the Yangtze River Delta, Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan and other urban agglomerations, as well as Shanghai and Shenzhen metropolitan areas, the development of the Jiaodong Economic Circle is relatively lagging, so the five cities there will strengthen the study of domestic advanced and mature city clusters and metropolitan areas, pay attention to intercity interaction and communication among metropolitan areas, and actively integrate into the overall situation of "dual-cycle" at home and abroad.