The eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province was recently named a Famous Software City by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, local media reported.

Since it first applied for the title in November 2017, Qingdao has seen rapid development in its IT industry. The city has ramped up efforts to develop IT-related industries by building software parks, attracting renowned software companies and products, and hosting influential software exhibitions.

The nighttime scenery of Qingdao, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/bandao.cn]

From January to November 2019, the total revenue of the city's software industry reached 226.81 billion yuan ($32.52 billion), up 16.6 percent year on year. This was 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average.

Sixty-three software products produced in the city were named "excellent" at the national, provincial, and municipal level.

COSMOPlat, independently designed and developed by Haier Group, China's largest home appliance maker, based in Qingdao, became China's first national-class industrial internet platform to be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2018.

Five Qingdao-based companies, including Hisense, CRRC Sifang, and Qingdao Eastsoft Communication Technology, have entered China's top 100 in terms of comprehensive competitiveness in software and information technology services.

Haier's COSMOPlat is demonstrated at Haier's booth at the 2018 Hanover Fair in Hanover, Germany, on April 24, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

Sixty-seven local enterprises have passed capability maturity model integration (CMMI), a way of improving and refining the software development process within an organization.

In addition, 33 enterprises in the city have passed the information technology service standard (ITSS) evaluation. This puts the city at third place in China in terms of number of enterprises who have passed the evaluation.

The city has attracted more than 1,800 software companies involved in artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, block chain, anime, computer games, information security, and more.

There are about 269,000 people working in the software industry in Qingdao, among whom 150,000, or 55.8 percent, have a bachelor's degree or above.

According to local authorities, Qingdao will continue carrying out the national policy of software industry development, work to create a better business environment for the industry, and advance the development of the software and IT industries in China.