Jining, renowned as the hometown of Confucius and China's Grand Canal capital, is emerging as a hub for future industries in southern Shandong. At the Future Industries Matchmaking and Exchange Meeting, held on June 15 in Qingdao as a part of the 7th Qingdao Multinationals Summit, city representatives expressed hopes of partnering with multinationals.

"A total of 58 Fortune Global 500 companies have invested or set up operations in Jining," said Wen Jinrong, Party secretary of the city, during the meeting.

With the goal of reaching a GDP of 1 trillion yuan ($147.99 billion), Jining is expanding from individual projects to integrated industrial clusters in emerging industries.

The event also featured the release of Shandong's future industry application scenarios and a special promotion of Jining's industry strengths. Representatives from Singapore's Vertex Holdings, RGE Group, and Ireland's Kerry Group attended the meeting. Themed "A new chapter, creating the future", the meeting focused on AI, embodied intelligence, low-altitude economy, and biomanufacturing. Jining is extending an open invitation to global investors as it pushes toward its 1 trillion yuan goal.