To create business opportunities, professionals from Qingdao are tapping into local resources.

Xixia, well known for its cherries since the 1980s, has an expanding cultivation area of around 110 hectares. In 2022, the village received an investment of 525,000 yuan from Qingdao to enhance the quality of the cherries. "Besides money, we also get valuable help from experts of the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences," said Gao Feng, Party secretary of Xiaochuan. "Traditional cherry species are no longer popular in the market. Thanks to the technical and capital support from the East-West coordination mechanism, we are now growing new species which sell out as soon as they hit the market in late May every year."

Wudu district in Longnan stands as China's largest olive cultivation area. To explore the rich resources, officials from Qingdao have introduced an investment of 43 million yuan to establish a modern agro-industry park spanning 20 hectares. Within Wudu, eight projects focused on the olive industry have been launched, with a combined investment totaling 287 million yuan.

Bai Wanming, general manager of a local biotech company, said they have introduced advanced technology from Qingdao so that the olive residues and leaves formerly regarded as waste can now be fully utilized to increase added value and thus raise income for the growers.

Effective East-West cooperation means sincere, two-way, targeted and sustainable collaboration, said Ma Xiaohui, member of the Party Leadership Group of Dingxi Municipal People's Government and leader of the second batch of officials dispatched from Qingdao to Dingxi. "It is essential to leverage local resources and strengths of both sides and broadly mobilize support from all sectors of society to drive high-quality East-West cooperation," Ma said.

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