Artist's rendering of the National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technologies in Qingdao, which covers 20 hectares of land and is to be completed next month. This will be China's unique marine science and research laboratory and is expected to rank seventh among all the world's marine research institutes.

Building a new zone

The purpose of the New Economic Zone on West Jiaozhou Bay is to build an economic zone at the national level that is a door that opens to the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and is a national shipping and aviation hub, a cluster of international, marine-related industries, and a modern, international city.

It wants to be a new pole of the economy that extends to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei to the north, the Yangtzi River delta to the south, and the Yellow River delta to the west. This will make Qingdao a capital of the ocean, and more open and livable. The new economic zone's GDP is expected to reach 500 billion yuan ($78.7 billion), by 2015, and more than 1 trillion yuan, by 2020.

There will also be plans to support the Jiaozhou Bay industrial equipment zone, Dongjiakou heavy industrial and chemical zone, the Qianwan seaside economic zone, and an ecologically smart city.

An additional effort will be made to develop marine engineering equipment, petrochemicals, marine biomedicine, and modern services. All the above efforts will help make the west coast of Jiaozhou Bay the most vibrant part of Qingdao and an international navigation hub and trade center for the Northeast.

This particular economic zone was first delineated in the Development Plan for the Blue Economic Zone of Shandong Peninsular, which was approved by the State Council in January 2011.

It has a planned area of 2,096 square kilometers.

The developers want to introduce newer global industries and technologies and upgrade the industrial chain. A key marine base will be built for biomedicine, marine energy, and deep-sea equipment.