The Jiaodong Economic Circle in Shandong province is ramping up its efforts to promote cooperation in the industrial design sector and an alliance was set up on July 21 in the province's port city Qingdao, according to local officials.

The alliance involves industry and information technology authorities from five cities in the Jiaodong area: namely Qingdao, Yantai, Weifang, Weihai and Rizhao.

Officials said it is designed to facilitate the integrated development of industrial design and form a competitive cluster.

The Jiaodong Economic Circle in Shandong province is ramping up efforts to promote cooperation in the industrial design sector. [Photo/WeChat account: qdfbwx]

According to experts, the era of the design industry has begun, making design a new major area for innovation alongside technology and business models. They said this has far-reaching significance for the industrial transformation and upgrading of China and the rest of the world.

Officials said the integrated development of industry and information technology in the Jiaodong area is inseparable from the cooperation in the field of industrial design.

Relying on strong industrial foundations, enhanced opening-up efforts and competitive economic strength, the five cities in the Jiaodong area will play the leading role in developing industrial design in Shandong province.

According to official statistics, Shandong has a total of 24 state-level industrial design centers, including 13 in Jiaodong area. Of 247 provincial industrial design centers, 91 are located in Jiaodong.

In a just-concluded provincial industrial design competition, the number of prize-winning works in the five cities of Jiaodong accounted for nearly 64 percent of the province's total, officials said.