Jinan High-tech Industrial Development Zone (Jinan HIDZ) was established by the State Council in 1991. It has a planned area of 15.9 km2. Jinan Export Processing Zone (Jinan EPZ) is part of Jinan HIDZ. It was set up by the State Council in March 2003 and covers an area of 3.2 km2.
Jinan HIDZ is located in the east of Jinan, 6 km from the Jinan-Qingdao expressway entrance, 18 km from Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport, 18 km from the Beijing-Shanghai expressway, 20 km from the main railway station of Jinan, and a 3-hour drive from Qingdao Port, which is the currently the nation’s fifth largest and the world’s seventh largest seaport, with a freight throughput reaching 265 million tons in 2007.
The major investors in this zone are LG, SK, Panasonic, Suzuki, NEC, Siemens, Pepsi, Sinotruk, Jili Auto and the Inspur Group.
Major industries encouraged are automobiles, electronics and IT, food processing, pharmaceuticals and machinery
Jinan HIDZ is divided into several zones, including the central zone, the eastern new zone and Jinan EPZ.
Jinan EPZ is located to the east of the city ring expressway and to the south of Jingshi East Road.
Jinan is Shandong’s education center. It has 44 universities and colleges with a total of 462,700 students — the highest number in the province. Shandong University, which is located in Jinan, is the most famous university in Shandong.
There are over 3,400 enterprises including 18 Fortune 500 companies that have been established in the zone.
Alibaba reports that Qilu Software Park is also located in the zone. There are 550 firms in the park, of which, eleven are key enterprises certified by the Ministry of Science and Technology.