Officials said the local government will help improve the city's innovative strength by facilitating the transfer of new technologies for commercial use, guiding more funds into research and development and offering effective public services.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 19 billion yuan ($3 billion) has been invested in Qingdao's R&D. This was an increase of 15.9 percent from a year ago and accounts for 2.61 percent of local GDP for the period, according to the bureau.

In addition, during the same period, the central, provincial and city governments allocated about 2 billion yuan to support major R&D programs in the city, a growth of 34 percent from last year.

Enhancing international technological cooperation was a top priority for the Qingdao city government this year.

To date the local government and enterprises have signed 82 cooperative agreements with businesses in 24 countries. These include a Sino-Ukrainian R&D facility for special-purpose ships, an offshore drilling R&D center with Norway and a Sino-Thai high-speed train program.

The government designated the Qingdao University Science Park as a center for international technology transfer.

Similar agreements were signed between Qingdao and domestic entities and a host of institutes agreed to open R&D facilities in Qingdao. These included the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan and Dalian University of Technologies.

R&D facilities

According the Qingdao science bureau, one of the leading R&D facilities under construction is the National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology.

With a floor space of 150,000 square meters, the lab will be the largest of its kind in China and the second largest in the world when complete.

Bureau officials said the city's government is building 10 public R&D centers to offer services to local high-tech companies. Two of them were due to be operational in the near future.

The officials said the government has helped form 12 industrial alliances for innovation, which allow the share of resources among enterprises in various industries.

The officials said the government encourages businesses to strengthen their innovative capabilities by offering incentives like tax reductions and financial help.

According to the science bureau, the government waived 1.37 billion yuan of taxes for 640 high-tech companies to date this year.

In addition, the government offered 140 million yuan worth of financial assistance to support 154 high-tech projects in the same period, through an innovation fund.

The bureau's statistics show that local enterprises contributed 77 percent of the total R&D funding in Qingdao and accounted for more than 50 percent of the number of approved patents.

As well as supporting programs for businesses, the government launched more than 160 R&D programs for public sectors including healthcare, traffic, environmental protection, food safety and agricultural modernization.

Technology transfer

In the past years, a low rate of technology transfer was a major bottleneck for the city's high-tech development, according to the science bureau.

However, bureau officials said the situation was fundamentally changed in 2013 when the government implemented various moves to help turn research results into commercial applications.

One strategy was the establishment of a comprehensive technology market system, which involved research entities, enterprises, intermediary agencies and the government.

The Qingdao Technology Market, which started in Qingdao High-Tech Zone in November last year, is the best example of the system. To date, it is home to more than 20 intermediary agencies.

In addition, the city has 45 organizations that offer technology transfer services.

The total value of technology transactions amounted to 3.6 billion yuan last year, up 40 percent from a year ago.

According to the science bureau, the Qingdao city government also gave support to high-tech start-up firms.

The city is building a number of industrial parks - with a designed land area of 5.57 million sq m - for high-tech start-ups.

In addition, the government helped develop various channels for financing small and micro enterprises.

Bureau officials said the government is also improving its service to create a better business environment for high-tech companies.

Efforts include helping enterprises recruit and train talented professionals and enhancing intellectual property right protection.

To date, the city has more than 42,000 people specializing in research and development.

The city's increasing innovative strength has resulted in booming growth of emerging and advanced industries, according to the science bureau.

The most prominent sectors are marine science-related industries, including marine-based biomedicine, tidal energy and anti-corrosion coatings for ships and offshore equipment.

The latest R&D achievements have also been used to update Qingdao's traditional industries like shipbuilding.

China Shipbuilding Industry Corp recently signed an agreement with the Qingdao city government to build an engineering academy. The move brings its total number of R&D facilities in Qingdao to 15.

CSIC's locally developed technologies like the advanced ship propelling system and smart submarine equipment lead the industry nationwide.