A truck is loaded with containers at Qingdao Port, Shandong province. ZHANG JINGANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

Qingdao stabilized the economy, steadily enhanced its development quality, and maintained overall social stability in 2022, securing new and hard-won achievements in development, local media reported.

In 2022, Qingdao's GDP reached nearly 1.5 trillion yuan (about $217.95 billion), ranking 13th in China and third among northern cities in the country. It takes up one-thousandth of the country's land area and generating one percent of the country's total GDP.

This year, Qingdao is striving to promote high-quality development, and speed up the construction of a socialist modern international metropolis in the new era, said Lu Zhiyuan, Party secretary of Qingdao.

The city is off to a good start this year by doing its best to boost consumption, increase investment, and stabilize foreign investment. It will improve the business environment, and promote steady economic growth, said Lu.

Given the optimized COVID-19 containment measures, the city's economic development will gain great momentum this year, said local officials.

Fine-tuning the implementation of policies and initiatives has been in place to prioritize economic recovery and boost consumption.

This year, Qingdao has arranged 520 key municipal projects with a total investment of 1.38 trillion yuan. The implementation of these projects will inject new impetus into the city's high-quality development.

Qingdao has a developed export-oriented economy, and external demand plays an important role in the city's economic development.

In 2022, the foreign trade value of Qingdao reached 911.72 billion yuan, accounting for 27.4 percent and 2.2 percent of the provincial and the country's total, respectively.