A drone flying from Lingshan Island prepares to land at Jimiya Wharf in Qingdao West Coast New Area, on Feb 27. Compared with traditional boat transportation, the land-island drone logistics delivery saves nearly 80 percent of the time. [Photo/Guanhai News]
Recently, the Qingdao Area of the China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Qingdao FTZ) released a series of concrete policies to support the high-quality development of low-altitude economy in the Sino-German Ecological Park of the zone.
The policies include:
1. Supporting the development of low-altitude economy enterprises: Encouraging the investment and development of low-altitude economy enterprises involved in the research and manufacture of eVTOLs, large and medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles, core component manufacturing, and more.
2. Encouraging the research and development of key industrial technologies: Encouraging industry-university-research collaborations to focus on key core technology breakthroughs in marine application scenarios, supporting enterprises in advancing related technology research and development in marine application scenarios.
3. Supporting companies in conducting test flights and activities: Helping enterprises involved in low-altitude economy manufacturing, flight testing site operation, and related fields conduct activities such as test flights, testing, and validation.
4. Supporting airworthiness certification for eVTOL and unmanned aerial vehicles: Assisting low-altitude economy enterprises in obtaining various certificates issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, including type certificates, production certificates, and operation certificates.
5. Cultivating new business formats in maritime transportation: Supporting related low-altitude economy enterprises in opening approved maritime commercial routes, normalizing operations such as port pilotage, vessel supply, and maritime logistics distribution.
6. Encouraging the expansion of commercial applications in multiple fields: Promoting the commercialization of maritime tourism, port pilotage, vessel supply, and transportation connection fields, encouraging collaboration between enterprises and relevant institutions for developing application scenarios.
7. Supporting the construction of take-off and landing facilities: Supporting the construction or upgrading of general airports and other take-off and landing facilities.
8. Strengthening operational support: Supporting general airports in providing general aviation services, and temporary landing sites for emergency rescue, medical assistance, and other public service activities.
The low-altitude economy industry represents a new productive force and its development is a national priority. With basic infrastructure such as general airports and favorable application scenarios like port logistics, the Qingdao FTZ serves as crucial support and key piece of infrastructure for the development of the low-altitude economy.
In the next steps, the zone will continue to accelerate the aggregation of the low-altitude economy industry and expand application scenarios through policy support and guidance, nurturing and stimulating new economic growth points to facilitate high-quality regional economic development.
China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone Qingdao Area
