The 2020 China Qidong Sci-tech and Talent Festival and International Economic & Trade Fair was held in Qidong, a county-level city of Nantong, on Dec 19.

Experts and scholars from universities and research institutes, representatives of Fortune 500 companies, transnational corporations and industry leaders, as well as representatives of the entrepreneurs investing in Qidong and domestic renowned intermediaries gathered to discuss the high-quality development of the city.

Li Ling, Party secretary of Qidong, gave a speech in which she pointed out that as the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) is coming, Qidong will enter a new stage. Major projects such as wharf construction in Lyusi Port of Tongzhou Bay, the new material base, an LNG energy base, a modern logistics base and a grain, oil and food production base are underway. Lyusi Port will become a new growth point of the coastal area development.

Li added that Qidong will strive to become a powerful city in talents and innovation, and will take the initiative to undertake the richest gathering of Shanghai's sci-tech talent resources and promote deep industry-university-research integration.

Eleven projects, with investment valued at 19.3 billion yuan ($2.96 billion), were signed at the fair, three about industry-university-research, three about talent development and one about 5G new infrastructure.

The key industrial projects signed were in the fields of precision machinery, new materials, biomedicine and intelligent logistics.