Area to become hub for cooperation

The Qingdao West Coast New Area, a bay area in Qingdao city in East China's Shandong province, is aspiring to become a hub for cooperation efforts among East Asian nations following its recent hosting of the forum for East Asia Marine Cooperation Platform, a high-level program under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Qingdao West Coast New Area was approved by the State Council, China's cabinet, as the ninth national-level new area in China's "new district strategy" in June 2014.

Located on the west coast of Jiaozhou Bay, the area covers 2,096 square kilometers of land, and 5,000 sq km of sea. It has 282 km of coastline and administers 1,221 villages with a total population of 1.8 million.

Last year, the area's gross domestic product was 260 billion yuan ($39.68 billion), up 12 percent year-on-year. It also attracted $1.74 billion in foreign investment. Its imports and exports were valued at $21.6 billion.

The area has four advantages when it comes to boosting its economic growth, its location, ocean technology, international logistics, and industry concentration.

Situated in the intermediary zone between the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, it is the main ocean outlet for areas along the Yellow River.

Its marine GDP reached 71.4 billion yuan last year, an increase of 19.5 percent year-on-year. It is home to 296 key marine sector enterprises, including the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Qingdao Pacific Container Co Ltd and Bright Moon Seaweed Group.

By the end of this year, it is estimated that the GDP of the area's marine sector will exceed 80 billion yuan, up 1.5 percent on last year.

The new area is also home to two gigantic deep-water port terminals, Qianwan and Dongjiakou. Managed by Qingdao Port, they have established trade relations with more than 700 ports in 180 countries and regions. Last year, their cargo throughput reached 490 million tons and container throughput reached 17.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), ranking eighth and seventh among global ports respectively. The 400,000-ton Dongjiakou Terminal is the world's largest ore terminal.

liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/29/2016 page12)