Weihai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province, has gained a firm foothold in the laser printer industry, with a 100-billion-yuan ($15.52 billion) level printer industry base located in its high-tech zone.

Weihai has formed a new pattern featuring seven industrial clusters covering new generation information technology, advanced equipment manufacturing, as well as health tourism.

Since global printer leader Hewlett-Packard signed a cooperation agreement in printer base construction with the Shandong Provincial Government and the municipal government of Weihai in 2019, which was also the first time that Hewlett-Packard has directly signed an agreement with a government branch, it has become the core part of Weihai's printer industry.

"The Weihai team is the most professional, dedicated, and efficient team I have ever cooperated with. It is the best global partner in the HP industry chain," said the chief supply chain executive of Hewlett-Packard.

Making use of the opportunities brought by its relationship with HP, Weihai has continued to attract international and domestic printer brands like Jabil from the United States, Fuji from Japan, as well as Yihe from China's Hong Kong, signing agreements on 24 supply chain projects with a total investment value of more than $2 billion. In the future, the production capacity of various laser printers in the city is expected to exceed 20 million units.

In addition, Weihai has attracted more foreign capital, which has bolstered its economic growth and broadened its development opportunities.

In the future, Weihai will strive to accelerate the construction of an industrial system featuring the coordinated development of pillar industries and technological innovation to provide a more favorable business environment for domestic and foreign enterprises.

Workers at the Hewlett-Packard printer assembly line at the printer industry base in Weihai, Shandong province [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]