People's Daily: Advanced manufacturing has formed a strong competitive advantage for the Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Exploring the economic development history of the Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone, you will find that the advanced manufacturing industry, dominated by construction machinery, is one of the industries with comparative advantages in the Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone. Driven by leading enterprises in complete machine production such as Shandong Lingong, Shanzhong Construction Machinery, and Huaxia Heavy Industry, the rapid development of the construction machinery industry in the entire district and even the entire city has led to its industrial economic total ranking among the top two in the province, forming a strong competitive advantage. The economic growth rate has maintained the first place in the city for many years, and it is currently striving to create a national demonstration zone for high-quality construction machinery.

As a pillar industry, the Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone has been vigorously promoting the structural adjustment and transformation of the construction machinery industry, persistently advancing the development and expansion of the construction machinery industry, and supporting it as one of the four key industries in the entire district. The municipal government has also given policy preferences to the construction machinery industry as one of the backbone industries in the city. Currently, the construction machinery industry chain in the Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone is continuously extending, the industrial scale is constantly expanding, forming a construction machinery industry chain from raw material procurement, to parts processing, to parts distribution, to complete machine assembly, and finally to market supply. The agglomeration of the construction machinery industry has improved the overall competitiveness of the entire industry in domestic and international markets. Last year, the construction machinery industry in the Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone achieved a total output value of 21.6 billion yuan, accounting for 70% of the total output of the city's construction machinery industry, playing a crucial role in regional economic development.

To maintain a leading advantage, the manufacturing industry must undergo transformation and upgrading. The key to the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry lies in innovation. From the experience of developed countries, when a country's industrialization reaches a certain stage, the total economic volume expands to a certain scale, and resource supply constraints increase to a certain extent, the industry needs to form new competitive advantages to continue moving forward, relying on innovation to enhance competitiveness and promote the development of related enterprises. This was the case in Europe and America in the early 20th century, and it was also true for Japan in the mid-20th century. Now, the construction machinery industry in the development zone and the domestic manufacturing industry have also entered this stage. In recent years, the development zone has made every effort to increase technological innovation, strengthen policy support, and formulate the "Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone Science and Technology Reward Measures" and the "Management Measures for Incubation Enterprises of the Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone High-tech Enterprise Incubation Center" to promote the transformation and upgrading of the construction machinery manufacturing industry. As of now, there are 10 high-tech enterprises in the entire district, including Shandong Lingong and Shanzhong Construction Machinery, 31 engineering technology centers and enterprise technology centers at or above the municipal level, 1 provincial engineering laboratory, and 1 postdoctoral research workstation; they have undertaken 115 national, provincial, and municipal science and technology projects, including 2 national torch plan projects, 1 "863" plan project, 2 national key new product plan projects, and 1 national science and technology innovation fund for small and medium-sized enterprises. They have received 52 awards at or above the municipal level, and 7 enterprises, including Jinli Hydraulic, have been awarded the title of innovative enterprises at the provincial and municipal levels. Manufacturing enterprises attach great importance to industry-university-research cooperation, having signed more than 60 cooperation agreements with research institutions such as Shandong University, Jilin University, and Beihang University. In 2011, the development zone was rated as a "National Demonstration Base for Industry-University-Research Cooperation Innovation."

While strengthening technological innovation, the development zone is also actively pursuing management innovation and institutional innovation, adhering to a multi-pronged approach driven by technology, management, and institutional innovation. Leveraging the platform advantages of advanced manufacturing, it actively guides national strategic emerging industry projects such as new generation information technology, energy conservation and environmental protection, and biomedicine into the park, cultivating strategic emerging industry clusters, continuously expanding industrial scale and enhancing industrial levels. Continuous innovation will greatly consolidate the leading advantage of the manufacturing industry in the development zone. In the next 3 to 5 years, the development scale, equipment level, technological advantages, brand effects, and supporting capabilities of the construction machinery industry in the entire district will significantly improve its position among domestic peers, and its demonstration effect will be further enhanced, with some indicators reaching or exceeding international advanced levels. The Linyi Economic and Technological Development Zone will also become a nationally and globally renowned construction machinery industry base. At the same time, the district is actively exploring new models for park development, vigorously developing energy conservation and consumption reduction, circular economy, and ecological economy, enhancing the sustainable development capacity and comprehensive benefits of park development, and striving to build the development zone into a high-end industrial agglomeration area, creating a region with strong competitiveness and influence in the advanced manufacturing highland of southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu.