A containership docks at Qingdao Port, Shandong province. [PHOTO by YU FANGPING/FOR CHINA DAILY]

The private economy provides great vitality to regional economic development and Qingdao plans to increase support by expanding of the city's private sector, said local officials.

Recently the city held a working conference on the private economy and small and medium-sized enterprise development, which made it clear that Qingdao continues to encourage, support and guide the development of the private sector to boost confidence among private enterprises and stimulate market vitality for greater economic growth.

According to official statistics, there were 2,016 million private market entities in the city last year, with a year-on-year growth of 4.8 percent. The city's private investment increased by 2.3 percent, and the import and export value of private enterprises reached 636.61 billion yuan ($92.49 billion), up 11.6 percent year-on-year. Tax revenue from the private sector reached 104.6 billion yuan. There were also 308,000 new jobs created in the city.

In 2022, 1,122 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises were newly identified in Qingdao, while 3,716 small and medium-sized enterprises were newly recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as niche-sector leaders with high market shares and strong innovation capacities.