TOTAL production volume of the city’s new industry exceeded 220 billion yuan (US$34.87 billion) last year with added value of about 55 billion yuan, accounting for 8.5 percent of the city’s total output. The new-generation of information technology, new energy, biological technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, energy saving and new energy vehicles have developed well since last year. The city introduced 150 new industry projects worth nearly 100 billion yuan. Among these, 128 projects have started construction. ? High-end manufacturing thrives Qingdao has become the country’s leading city in high-speed train development and manufacturing with a batch of leading companies in the city. Production volume of the city’s high-end manufacturing industry reached 137 billion yuan last year, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total production volume of the new industry. The city’s new material industry mainly focuses on new polymer material and 26 new material projects with total investment of 19.6 billion yuan were introduced to the city last year and their total production volume is expected to reach 47 billion yuan. New energy makes progress A batch of new energy projects such as wind power and solar power projects were introduced to the city last year and some of them have already started operation. Key projects included solar-powered batteries, a lithium batteries power plant and a research laboratory for tires. The total production volume of the area is expected to reach 15 billion yuan. A medicine production center in the city’s national ocean biology industrial base was put into operation last year and a batch of blue economy medicine laboratories and companies were also introduced. There are more than 300 biology companies in the city and its production volume is expected to reach 9 billion yuan. New information technology hits new heights The city has sped up its development in Internet of Things and cloud computing since last year and a batch of data center or high-end information platforms for top computer and software companies such as Sina.com, Sohu.com and Baidu.com have been built in the city. The new-generation information technology’s production volume will reach about 9 billion yuan with sales revenue of the software industry of more than 30 billion yuan. The country’s biggest seawater desalination project has been under construction since last year and will be in operation this year. The total production volume of the environmental protection industry will reach 3 billion yuan. (Wang Yuanyuan, Lin Gang) | 