The cities of Jinan, Qingdao and Yantai - three core areas in promoting Shandong's ongoing plan to transform old economic growth drivers - have been drawing up their own related development blueprints and promoting their advantages in industries and investment.

"Jinan does have some unique advantages when shifting from old to new growth drivers," said Wang Zhonglin, Party chief of the city.

The provincial capital has a strategic location between two principal Chinese metropolises, Beijing and Shanghai, and is one of the eight cities in China that daily receives more than 10,000 people due to its strong comprehensive influence on neighboring areas, Wang said.

As for the future industrial development, Wang said the city has decided to focus on 10 sectors, including new-generation information technology, quantum science and technology, modern logistics and culture and tourism, each of which has the potential to reach an industry value of 100 billion yuan ($14.7 billion) by 2020.

Jinan-headquartered Inspur Group, a leading company in the sector of new-generation information technology, for example, has led the way in the innovation of many key and advanced technologies of the digital economy by developing cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence.

Last year, the world's first quantum communication network was fully operational in Jinan, making China the first country in the world to implement quantum technology for commercial ends.

In coming years, "Jinan will accelerate the construction of such innovation platforms as a national supercomputing center, a healthcare big data center and a drug research and production center to develop itself into a regional science and innovation hub," Wang said.

To better promote the conversion of old growth drivers into new ones, the city in April set up a special fund of 250 billion yuan to mainly support the development of six fields, including infrastructure construction, urban renewal, investment attraction and mergers and acquisitions.

Qingdao also set up a project library with the same theme and has identified about 1,000 major projects. The city plans to emphasize developing nine industries including a modern maritime economy, smart home appliances, rail transit equipment, car building and modern logistics.

Yantai announced in May that it also set up a fund of 300 billion yuan for the transformation of old growth drivers.

Its five-year development goal for the proportion of strategic emerging industries to the city's GDP will reach 16.2 percent by 2022, and the proportion of new economy to the GDP will reach at least 30 percent.

Zhang Shuping, Party chief of Yantai, said the city is one of the birthplaces of China's national industry and has huge potential in developing the maritime economy with its vast sea area, a long coastline and rich maritime resources.

It plans to give special attention to the establishment of an advanced manufacturing city and the creation of a springboard for cooperation and opening-up toward Northeast Asia.

Currently, Yantai has built a city-level major project library relating to the conversion of old and new growth drivers, which consists of 300 projects, with total investment estimated to reach more than 887 billion yuan.