Dongying Economic and Technological Development Zone was established in December 1992 and upgraded to a state-level development zone with the approval of the State Council in March 2010. So far, it has been awarded multiple state-level and province-level honorable titles including National High-tech Industry Standardization Demonstration Area, National Demonstration Area for Famous Brands of Copper and Copper Materials Industry, National Circulation Transformation Pilot Area and National Demonstration Area for Intellectual Property, as well as Shandong Provincial Scientific Development Demonstration Area, Shandong Provincial New Industrialization Industrial Demonstration Base and Shandong Provincial New Energy and High Technology Industrial Base. Now, it is endeavoring to build itself into a National Eco-industrial Demonstration Area and a National Circular Economy Standardization Demonstration Area.

Situated to the east of the town of Dongying City, Dongying Economic and Technological Development Zone neighbors Dongying Municipal Government. With a prime locality, Dongying City adjoins the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Economic Circle in the north, joins the Jiaodong Peninsula Economic Zone in the south and faces Japan and South Korea across the sea in the east. As a significant node city of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Economic Circle and Bohai Economic Rim and a primary part of Shandong Peninsula Urban Cluster, it is perfectly located as a hub of major economic areas and a pilot city of a series of national strategies including Shandong Comprehensive Test Area for Replacing Old Drivers of Growth with New Ones, Yellow River Delta Efficient and Ecological Economic Area and Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Area, thus making it one of the areas with most potential for development in China’s eastern coastal region.

The Zone enjoys easy accessibility with a 3.5-hour ride to Beijing, a 2.5-hour ride to Tianjin and a 2-hour ride to  Jinan or Qingdao. As to Dongying City where the Zone sits, Dezhou–Dajiawa Railway, Huangye–Dajiawa Railway and Zibo–Dongying Railway have been completed, and a couple of railway projects including the second line of Beijing–Shanghai Expressway, Bohai Rim High-speed Railway and Jinan–Dongying High-speed Railway are under construction. The 10,000-ton Port of Guangli and the Port of Dongying in the Zone, sticking to the development principle of finding their own correct niches and drawing on each other’s strengths, have specialized in transportation service for bulk cargo, package cargo and universal containers. Dongying Shengli Airport in the Zone has opened domestic flights to over ten cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi’an, Dalian, Ningbo, Foshan, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

As of the end of 2017, Dongying Economic and Technological Development Zone  had 71 industrial enterprises above designated size, 45 high-tech enterprises, 2 enterprises on the shortlist of Top 500 Enterprises of China and 4 enterprises on the shortlist of Top 500 Manufacturing Enterprises of China. In 2017, the GDP of the Zone reached RMB 40.272 billion, up 6.6%; the general public budget revenue of the Zone hit RMB 1.83 billion, up 12.5%. These encouraging figures have placed the Zone 66th in the 2017 evaluation and assessment ranking for the comprehensive development level of national economic and technological development zones by the Ministry of Commerce and 3rd among 15 state-level economic and technological development zones of Shandong Province.