The Qingdao Party and Government Delegation Visit Shenzhen Again after Two Years
May 12, 2021
On the evening of May 11, after the inspection tour to Chengdu, Zhao Haozhi, Deputy Secretary of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Qingdao, led the Qingdao party and government delegation to Shenzhen again for investigation and study, demonstrating Qingdao’s determination to learn from Shenzhen.
In the past two years, new changes have taken place in Shenzhen and Qingdao, and Qingdao has new ideas and demands for learning. According to the inspection sites arranged this time, the one-day itinerary involves six aspects, including digital city, financial technology, culture and tourism industry, and innovative enterprises, all of which are areas where Qingdao is seeking solutions.
First stop: Qianhai International Conference Center
Highlight: A site to show Shenzhen’s ambition
To learn from Shenzhen, we must first understand its ambition. During this trip to Shenzhen, Qianhai International Conference Center become the first stop for the delegation to know more about Shenzhen.
Qianhai International Conference Center actively plays the role of promoting the city and industrial development of the Qianhai area, constantly strives to hold major home diplomatic activities to meet the growing needs of high-end business, government affairs, international exchanges, etc., and provides in-depth services for Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation and the coordinated development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In Qingdao, there is also a building similar in history, positioning, and function to Qianhai International Conference Center. In 2018, Qingdao International Conference Center, as the main venue of the Qingdao Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, also becomes Qingdao’s city reception hall after the summit. How to use this building at a higher level is also an important point for Qingdao to learn from Shenzhen.
Second stop: Shenzhen Municipal Government Management Service Command Center
Highlight: The urban brain that can perceive and think
In the Shenzhen Municipal Government Management Service Command Center, a 100-square-meter high-definition LED large screen displays 14 thematic information such as the city’s economic operation, ecological environment, government services, and urban governance. The city’s 82 sets of systems, 100 types of business data from various departments, and 380,000 multi-channel video data have been accessed.
The center masters more than 200 first-level indicators of urban vital signs monitoring, and serves as the brain that can perceive and think, commanding the operation of the smart city.
What Shenzhen is exploring is also the direction Qingdao is striving for.
During the investigation and study, Zhao Haozhi proposed that we should earnestly learn from the experience of Shenzhen, accelerating the construction of new infrastructure represented by 5G, strengthening the empowerment application of data resources in social governance, convenient services, public security, innovation and entrepreneurship, industrial development and other fields, and speeding up the construction of digital Qingdao, and build a higher-level smart city.
Third stop: Ping An International Finance Centre
Highlight: A master of financial technology
In the context of the new round of scientific and technological revolution, finance and technology are deeply integrated, and it has become the consensus of the industry that science and technology should be combined with finance.
With a group of world-leading giant financial technology companies such as Ping An of China, WeBank, and Tencent Financial Technology, Shenzhen has become a leader in financial technology in the Asia-Pacific region.
When it comes to Qingdao, the financial industry is the pillar industry of the city. At the same time, Qingdao also shoulders the important task of the country’s comprehensive financial reform experiment of the national wealth management and the application pilot of national financial technology.
In recent years, Qingdao has continuously explored the development of financial technology, focusing on the new generation of information technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobile Internet, big data, and the Internet of Things. It has continued to integrate finance with technology, serve the people’s livelihood, and strengthen supervision, actively building a financial technology service support platform, cultivating and introducing financial technology companies.
Fifth stop: OCT Harbour
Highlight: New species of cultural and tourism integration
OCT Harbour is the first urban cultural tourism business entertainment complex in China, updating continuously in the operation cycle, and introducing innovative cultural consumption scenes. OCT Harbour will always maintain its vitality.
Qingdao and Shenzhen are both coastal tourist cities with pleasant scenery, with similar resource endowments and urban positioning. What is amazing is that Shenzhen, a city younger than Qingdao, has its splendid cultural tourism industry which almost started from scratch. Therefore, its successful experience has more practical significance for Qingdao.
In the two sessions of 2021, the Report on the Work of the Government of Qingdao also pointed out a new path for the development of Qingdao’s cultural and tourism industry, including developing high-quality tourism, integrating and upgrading the international fashion business area in the Fushan Bay, and encouraging the development of cultural industries such as film and television production, performing arts and entertainment. Perhaps this trip to OCT Harbour will open up more possibilities for the development of Qingdao’s cultural tourism industry.
Fourth and sixth stop: Tencent/Huawei
Highlight: The industry benchmark of scientific and technological innovation in Shenzhen
The most prominent feature of Shenzhen’s independent innovation system is to give full play to the main role of enterprise innovation. There are numerous enterprises in Shenzhen like Huawei and Tencent that insist on innovation and development, and play the main role in technological innovation decision-making, R&D investment, scientific research organization, and achievement transformation. It is their joint efforts that promote innovation in Shenzhen.
What Shenzhen insists on is also what Qingdao should insist on. During the investigation, Zhao Haozhi emphasized that it is necessary to persist in innovation and development, give full play to the main role of enterprise innovation, strengthen industry-university-research cooperation, and focus on industrial needs, continue strengthening R&D investment and technological transformation, break through the difficulties in the key technology, and promote industrial upgrading and transformation.
Two years later, the Qingdao party and government delegation went to Shenzhen again for investigation and study, and witnessed the city that is more ambitious, innovative, and more energetic, and the city that keeps leaping forward. Learning is a state, and catching up is a process. As long as Qingdao sets its goal, insists on learning from this advanced city, interpreting Shenzhen’s development logic and codes in detail, it will eventually bring together a source of continuous development momentum.
