Jining develops IT industry in bid to rival 'Silicon Valley'

Increasing income of sector adds influence and attractiveness to province, official says

Jining, Shandong province, is propelling the development of its information industry and plans to enlarge its value to 100 billion yuan ($15.7 billion) by 2020, according to the Party chief.

"We are building Jining into a new Silicon Valley with influence and attractiveness to the whole province and the nation," said Ma Pingchang, Party chief of Jining.

In 2014, the city's GDP reached 381 billion yuan, 9.6 percent growth from a year earlier. In the first half of 2015, the industrial added-value of large-scale enterprises saw an increase of 8.13 percent, ranking sixth in the province, IT industries accounting for 20 percent.

Jining's IT industry income increased by 44.6 percent in 2014 and 30.1 percent in the first three months of 2015, signaling a good result for the full year. The city was selected to be one of the country's first IT pioneer cities, as well as the industrialization base for the national Beidou Navigation Satellite System.

"Jining will accelerate development of its high-tech industries, including information industries, to make it a best investment destination for multinational corporations," Ma said.

For that purpose, the city introduced new policies this March that upgrade the development environment for IT industries. These include favorable policies and support for IT corporations that choose to invest in Jining.

In August, mayor Mei Yonghong led a delegation to Beijing, where they signed cooperation contracts with many IT giants. Since 2014, more than 20 software corporations, including Oracle, IBM, Siemens, Pactera and iSoftStone, have invested in the Jining National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, forming a firm core of the municipal IT industry. Microsoft, EMC and Germany-based SAP are in discussions about investment and cooperation.

Jining has an ample supply of talented personnel to support such corporations in their long-term development. HP and the city jointly established an international software talent and industrial base program in the high-tech zone, with 2.66 billion yuan invested by June, which is only 23 percent of the total planned investment. Included in the program are a software talent training center, a research and development plus test center, an IT resources service center and a display center.

The training center was completed in September and admitted 843 talented graduates from local colleges and universities that same year, of whom more than half have since found jobs at IT corporations such as HP, Pactera and BeyondSoft. Another 539 students entered the base this March and will provide a fresh supply of skilled personnel to IT corporations. Thirty-two experienced engineers from HP headquarters now work in the R&D plus test center, which also opened in September.

As a loyal partner to Jining, HP has already registered four companies in the city. Jining is only one of the candidates for investment on the multinational's list, and won the investments because it shares strategic values with HP. Global vice-executive Hans-Peter Klaey has said HP is making a strategic investment in China and it and Jining have selected each other as partners.

On May 9, an innovation strategic union of satellite navigation technological corporations in Shandong was established in the high-tech zone of Jining. Sixteen colleges and research institutions have joined the union and will coordinate with each other to drive the development of the technology. Currently, high-tech industries have already surpassed the manufacturing sector in terms of growth rate. The success of the early comers is attracting increasingly more IT companies to reside in Jining. Currently, there are 58 programs that exceed 100 million yuan in investment, while another 46 are in negotiations.

The ZTE smart city program has already finished constructing their business center in Jining. With 14 Internet companies joining it, the center is expected to be the data center of the southwest Shandong province. Oracle has already put into use its comprehensive cloud service platform. The ecological circle program of iSoftStone has also finished registration for its license, with a new united innovation laboratory with Siemens under construction. In addition, the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has started construction of its industrial park with total investment of 5 billion yuan.

Just as Silicon Valley promotes the development of relevant industries in the neighborhood, Jining's IT industries are benefiting traditional industries in the city, also. More than 200 technology-upgrading programs of 12 industries are listed on various municipal plans, with total planned investment of 132 billion yuan. Of those, 128 have already launched, bringing new life to this old city.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

A bird's-eye view of the Confucius Temple in Qufu, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. Photos provided to China Daily

Representatives attend the signing ceremony for the HP-Jining International Software Talent and Technology Center.

(China Daily 08/26/2015 page10)