This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Zaozhuang City，witnessing a start of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) as well as upcoming breakthroughs. on March 2, 2021， Zaozhuang Municipal Government convened an important conference themed around the implementation of the three-year plan, calling for joint efforts throughout the whole city to build a better Zaozhuang through industrial development. The municipal government is determined to strengthen industry and strives to break a new ground in building a modern and strong city in the new era, by giving priority to major industries and large-scale industries in Zaozhuang.

　　seek breakthroughs through industrial growth with unified understanding and concerted efforts

　　The past 60 years has witnessed glory of Zaozhuang when it was once in a leading position in Shandong industrial and economic development. However, it is depressing that Zaozhuang industry lags far behind other prefectures owing to its sole dependence on the limited number of resources. Facing the fact, Ping Chen, the Secretary of the Zaozhuang Municipal Committee of CPC, admitted the disadvantage instead of shying away from it, “the situation of small volumes, inferior quality and slow growth in industrial development has not been fundamentally reversed yet”, he said. The revenue from enterprises above designated size in Zaozhuang accounted for 3.5 percent of the province in 2010 while it decreased into 1.4 percent in 2020. Besides, the number of enterprises above designated size in Zaozhuang dropped from 3.6 percent in 2010 to 2.5 percent of the total in 2020. In particular, the city was in a serious lack of large-scale enterprises and groups, with only one enterprise on the list of Top 100 Private Enterprises in Shandong and even no enterprises on the list of Top 100 Industrial Enterprises in the country.

　　However, 4.2 million Zaozhuang people all share a common aspiration to rebuilding a powerful industrial city. To this end, Zaozhuang Municipal Party Committee and Government have long been holding fast to the belief that if the industry is thriving, the city will be thriving.

　　To develop the local economy, we have to apply scientific methods and proper priority into daily work with a strategic target on attaining industrial prosperity. The industrial robustness definitely holds the key to the city revitalization. The three-year plan marks the start of the campaign. A good start is half done. The beginning is the most important part of the work, and it will leave a decisive impact on the future.

　　Secretary Chen Ping stresses that government departments at all levels in Zaozhuang City should work hard to reinforce industrial revival with a stronger sense of urgency, sense of mission and responsibility. Only empowered with a shared understanding, unified perception, stronger confidence and concerted focus on industry dimension, can we expect for an industrial boom, economic acceleration and a great leap of the city through industrial upgrading.

　　Take targeted measures to promote the implementation of the six directions.

　　Under the leadership of the Zaozhuang Municipal Party Committee and Government, government departments at all levels are united closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi as the core and enhance the awareness of the Party Central Committee, and also understand the precise steps of the three-year plan.

　　Secretary Chen Ping notes that, to build a powerful city with leading industries and enterprises, it is critical to highlight key points and make precise efforts to tackle tough problems one by one, and strive for breakthroughs one by one, taking steps to implement the blueprint of “a strong industrial city and a prosperous industrial city”.

　　First, take initiative to construct industrial clusters. Guided by the “6+3” modern industrial system planning, Zaozhuang City will build a whole industry chain around leading enterprises with “One Thousand Technology Innovations” and “One Thousand Quality Improvement Programs”. The “double-thousand” project will advance local industrial development towards high-level specialization, differentiation and distinctiveness so as to foster a number industrial clusters with distinctive advantages. More accurately, in the next three or five years, the city strives to build high-end equipment and two chemical industry clusters which are worth hundreds of billions of yuan respectively. Meanwhile, a new material cluster worth fifty billion yuan, two new energy and medicine clusters about thirty billion yuan, and a new-generation information technology cluster in the value of 10 billion yuan will jointly constitute the Flying-geese Industry Model of 2121.

　　Second, achieve breakthroughs in project construction. It is essential to strengthen the awareness that it is projects that hold the key to industrial success. During project construction, we should highlight the importance of early planning, rapid advancing and strong support & guarantee, and meanwhile make unwavering efforts to ensure continued improvement on both quantity and quality of projects. After adapting to general conditions, Zaozhuang Government stay focused on upgrading leading industries and industrial zones with local characteristics, engaged in efficient project planning and rational distribution of projects in order to speed up the complementary and coordinated development while maintaining its local distinctiveness.