A Long March 11 rocket blasts off from a mobile launch platform in the Yellow Sea off Shandong province on June 5, 2019. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

The aerospace industrial cluster in Haiyang, a county-level city in the coastal city of Yantai in Shandong province, was listed in the second batch of 13 Shandong provincial-level strategic emerging industrial clusters on March 22.

Strategic emerging industries are critical for generating and creating new growth drivers and gaining future competitive advantages. They represent the future path of technological innovation and industrial transformation. Shandong will support the establishment of innovation platforms and key projects for building the provincial-level strategic emerging industrial clusters.

Due to its favorable geographical location, Haiyang is China's fifth rocket launch site and the country's only homeport for seaborne rocket launches. China successfully launched a Long March-11 rocket from a mobile launch platform in the Yellow Sea off Shandong province on June 5, 2019. It was China's first space launch from a sea-based platform. The rocket was transported to the launch site from Haiyang Port in Yantai.

Following the successful launch, Haiyang made a request for the construction of the Haiyang Oriental Aerospace Port and thoroughly investigated the development opportunities. The port's building has accelerated dramatically in the last two years, with a number of large projects already underway.

Yantai now has five strategic emerging industrial clusters above the provincial level, placing it first in the province in terms of the total number. The biomedical industrial cluster and advanced structural materials industrial cluster are two at the national level, while the marine engineering equipment industrial cluster, nuclear power equipment industrial cluster, and Haiyang's aerospace industrial cluster are three at the provincial level.

To build a rolling and continuous cultivation mechanism, the Yantai Development and Reform Commission will boost its support for existing strategic emerging industrial clusters and nurture more emerging industrial clusters with regional importance.