The 2019 World Industrial Design Conference and Industrial Design World Expo takes place in Yantai, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province, from October 18 to 20 (MA XIAOWEN)

The 2019 World Industrial Design Conference and Industrial Design World Expo, co-organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's top industry regulator, and the Shandong provincial government, kicked off on October 18 in Yantai City with more than 2,000 industrial design institutes and enterprises from over 40 countries and regions in attendance.

Hundreds of high-end forums, workshops and cooperation meetings are being held in the 30,000-square-meter expo area. Many of the latest industrial design ideas and products are on display during the three-day event.

The expo, the world's largest of its kind, will promote the application of industrial design in data exchange, intelligent manufacturing, smart living, medical care and poverty alleviation.

Yantai, a city in east China's Shandong Province, launched the first World Design Association during the expo.

The city has ratcheted up innovation efforts after it was selected to be part of the Shandong Free Trade Zone. It is collaborating with over 50 universities and firms from China and abroad to build the China Industrial Design Joint Innovation University, along with inaugurating the Shandong Industrial Design Institute.

In recent years, the added value of the manufacturing industry has grown to 40 percent of the city's GDP, 90 percent of the total industrial added value, according to Zhang Hong, Vice Director of the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of the Yantai Municipal Government.

"Manufacturing is the bulk of Yantai's economy, offering the design industry a market volume of tens of millions yuan," Zhang said, adding that the developing design industry will help Yantai replace old growth drivers with new ones and achieve high quality growth.

Since the end of 19th century, the city has been home to many renowned domestic brands and was among the first 14 coastal cities to turn its face to the world when China decided to pursue reform and opening up in the late 1970s.

(Reporting from Yantai, Shandong Province)

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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