New energy vehicle (NEV) maker Cherry New Energy signed an agreement of strategic cooperation with the Jimo district government of Qingdao, east China’s Shandong province on Dec. 20.

Cherry New Energy is the fifth NEV enterprise that has established a branch in the city, after BAJC BJEV, FAW Jiefang, SAIC-GM-Wuling and FAW-Volkswagen.

Qingdao, as a major manufacturing city in China, had been home to four NEV enterprises and 188 above-scale auto parts manufacturers. The joining of Cherry New Energy has injected new impetus to Qingdao to build itself into the world’s largest industrial base of NEVs, said Wang Qingxian, Secretary of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee at the signing ceremony.

It is reported that Qingdao is building a platform to promote the building of an industrial cluster where leading enterprises take the lead and integrate the industrial chain to attract a batch of high-quality products, so as to improve the integrated development of both up- and lower-streams of the industry.

Thanks to policies issued by the Qingdao government, the city has witnessed a growing “magnetic effect” in its NEV development.

It has established an industrial association for NEVs to facilitate the building of an AI industry community, in an attempt to achieve in-depth integrated development between automobiles and AI, Internet of Things, and cloud computing.

In addition, the city will also set up an investment fund to encourage the development of the NEV industry, attracting social and financial capital.