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Qingdao's Innovative "Goose Formation" Takes Shape and Gains Momentum

Source：Haibao News 08-05-2026 10:00:00

In recent years, Qingdao in Shandong Province has been actively building a full-chain, tiered cultivation system to develop innovative "seed players" for emerging and future industries. Currently, the city is home to 5,661 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 3,118 specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative SMEs. It has cultivated a total of 1,193 fledgling enterprises, 527 gazelle enterprises, 19 unicorn enterprises, and 256 national-level specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative "Little Giant" enterprises, forming an innovative "goose formation" that is soaring to new heights.

Qingdao is concentrating on key areas such as policy support, enterprise cultivation, resolution of business concerns, and factor support, and is continuously striving to make breakthroughs. In optimizing the development environment, Qingdao has deepened reforms to ensure policies reach enterprises quickly and directly, and enhanced the functionality of the "Qingdao Policy Access" platform. Since the beginning of this year, it has supported the launch of 57 enterprise-benefit programs by 12 municipal departments. To strengthen high-quality enterprises, Qingdao has provided targeted guidance to encourage companies to follow the specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative development path, promoted the introduction of special award and subsidy policies for unicorn enterprises, and completed the transformation tasks for 614 pilot enterprises undergoing digitalization.

As the tiered cultivation system is steadily improved, a group of high-quality enterprises is rapidly emerging. The "goose formation" of Qingdao's innovative SMEs is growing ever longer, with "small-but-mighty" companies—such as fledglings, gazelles, unicorns, and national-level specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative "Little Giants"—soaring ever higher and driving Qingdao's innovative industries to stand out.