According to the general principal of building a harmonious socialist society and guided by the scientific out- look on development, Shandong has taken great efforts to promote adjustment of economic structure and transformati- on of development pattern in recent years, and thus gained rapid growth of national economy. In the year of 2007, the GDP of the province reached 2.59 trillion Yuan, ranking the 2nd in the country and keeping a two-digit growth rate for 17 years in a row.
Agriculture
Shandong is an important base of grain, cotton, and oil as well as aquatic product, fruit, livestock product, and vegetable. It takes an early start in agricultural industrializa- tion and enjoys fast development, and is home to some leading companies, e.g., Longda, Fengxiang, Meijia, and etc.
General Industry and Construction Industry
Shandong has good industrial infrastructure and comp- -lete varieties. The six pillar industries – electronic informa-
-tion and home appliance, mechanical equipment, chemical industry, food, textile, and new materials grow very fast, and the hi-tech industries as bio-technology and pharmacy, envi- -ronment protection, energy saving and emission reduction have developed into a relatively complete system. The outp- ut of 47 industrial products rank the first all over the coun-
try, e.g. household refrigerator, freezer, agricultural machin- ery, industrial machinery, heavy-duty truck, light motorcy- cle, machine-made paper and paper board, fertilizer, tire, ce- ment, edible vegetable oil, gauze, cloth, architectural ceramics, gold, etc. Shandong has a number of world well-known companies like Haier, Hisense, Qingdao Beer, Changyu Wine, Langchao Group, Dongyue Auto, and Sinotruck.
Eight thousand construction companies in Shandong have qualification of contracting foreign engineering projects, among which 5676 have the third grade qualification and above. Five Shandong companies are in the list of the largest 225 contractors in the world, which are Shandong Electric Power Infrastructure Construction Company, Qingdao Construction Group, Weihai International Economic and Technological Cooperation Co. Ltd., SEPEO III Electric Power Construction Corporation, and Shandong Hongchang Road and Bridge Corporation.。
Service Sector
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Finance and Insurance: There are 187 banking institutions in Shandong, and 9 of them are foreign funded banks or represent- ative offices. 41 national insurance companies have set their offices in Shandong. There are 117 professional insurance agencies.
Storage and Logistics: Over three thousand companies in Shandong are engaged in logistics, including large companies of China and foreign countries, e.g. China National Materials Storage and Transportation Corporation and COSCO Group, and foreign companies like Maersk Logistics of Denmark, ITOCHU Corporation of Japan, Hanjin Shipping of South Korea, and Singamas of Singapore.
Commercial Service: The total volume of retail sales of social consumption goods reached 843.879 billion Yuan in 2007, up 18.5% over the previous year, and 446 markets got a 100 million Yuan turnover each year. 234 sole foreign-funded wholesale and retail companies have been approved to set offices in Shandong. At present, the province has 465 accounting firms and 767 lawyer’s offices.
Software: There are two State-level and four provincial-level software parks, among which, Qilu Software Park is one of the 11 flagship software bases of the country and the national software exportation base, and Qingdao Software Park is China torch program software technology development base. Among Shandong’s local software companies, three are in the list of 30 largest independent software vendors, and eight are among the top 100 software companies. Jinan city is granted the name of “National Base of Service Outsourcing”.
Tourism: Due to its beautiful landscape and numerous cultural relics, Shandong has thousands of tourist resorts, and 213 of them are Class A. For example, Mount Tai - “World Natural Heritage”, Qufu – Confucius hometown and “World Cultural Heritage”, Penglai – fairyland on earth, Laoshan mountain – holy place of Taoism, Rizhao – city of aquatic sports, Weifang – city of kite, Qingdao – international beer city, Yantai – international wine city, and Jinan – city of springs.
Opening up to the Outside World
Foreign Trade: Yantai city was opened up to be a commercial port in 1861 and is one of the earliest in China. Jinan and Qingdao have been opening up to the outside world for over 100 years. Till now, more than 200 countries and districts have had trade relations with Shandong. The total volume of |
import & export of Shandong in 2007 was USD 122.62 billion; USD 75.24 billion was for exports and USD 47.37 billion for import. The top ten exporting goods are machinery and equipment, electrical appliance and electronic products, clothing, textile, steel, tire, aquatic products, game player, vegetable, and telephone set; the top ten importing goods are electric appliance and electronic product, machinery and equipment, iron ore, product oil, plastic raw material, computer and communication technology, soybean, frozen fish and fish fillet, textile, and instrument and meter.
Foreign Investment: By the end of 2007, companies from over 130 countries and districts have invested in Shandong. South Korea, Hong Kong, USA, Japan, British Virgin Islands, and Taiwan are the first six regions which invest most. Most investments go to manufacturing industry. 130 of the Fortune Global 500 companies have set their presence in Shandong, e.g. GM, Lucent, HP, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, ITOCHU, Shell oil, Unilever, Siemens, METRO, Peugeot, Arcelor, Nestle, Daewoo, Samsung, etc.
Contracting overseas projects and labour service cooperation: By the end of 2007, the accumulated contractual value of contracting foreign engineering projects has reached USD 19.64 billion, the business turnover was USD 13.33 billion, and the contracted projects belong to over 130 countries and districts covering construction, transporta- tion, and power. Labours are mainly dispatched to Japan, South Korea, and Singapore engaging in construction, transp- ortation, machinery and electronics, agriculture and aquatic industry, textile and clothing, food processing, software, etc.
Investment in Foreign Countries: 1480 companies have been approved to develop companies (agencies) in 110 fore- ign countries and districts by the end of 2007, with a total contractual investment amount of USD 2.5 billion. The inves-tment mainly goes to home appliance, textile and clothing, mining, wood, machinery, chemical industry, and construc- tion materials. 3 national level overseas joint economic zones have been developed, and they are Haier-Ruba Economic Zone in Pakistan, Cua economic zone in Venezuela invested by Langchao Group and the timber industrial park in Russia invested by Yantai Northwest Forestry Co., Ltd.
Sister Relations: Shandong has had sister relations with more than 130 provinces, states and cities of foreign countries. |