Shandong's software business revenue reached a record high of 502.8 billion yuan ($75.07 billion) in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 14.9 percent, according to statistics released by the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology.

The software industry generated profit of 43.4 billion yuan, up 10.5 percent over the previous year, with tax payments reaching 35.9 billion yuan, an increase of 12.9 percent.

It marks a new stage of development of the province's software industry development as its revenue exceeded 500 billion yuan for the first time, said a department official.

Last year, the department implemented the overall plan of the provincial government to strengthen technological innovation and boost industrial upgrading in a bid to support Shandong's efforts to replace old economic growth drivers with new ones.

It has promoted the construction of software industrial parks to spur tech start-ups and boost the sector's development. The province is now home to two national-level software parks and 19 provincial-level ones.

The department has introduced policies and adopted a series of measures to advance the development of high-end software. It has also cultivated a total of 125 provincial-level software engineering and technology centers.

Tax cuts for software enterprises in Shandong province hit a new high at 2.6 billion yuan in 2018, benefiting 1,093 taxpayers. The department has rolled out policy and regulatory incentives to better serve and encourage development and innovation of high-tech enterprises.

The department has optimized the development of big data industry, enhanced the province's ability to integrate big data with the real economy and promoted the development of industrial agglomeration. It has cultivated seven provincial big data industrial clusters, 40 leading big data companies and 70 big data products and solutions.

It will continue to promote the construction of software parks and cultivate leading high-tech enterprises, products and solutions. It will also continue to support development of new technologies and new forms of business such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and blockchains, aiming to contribute more to Shandong's high-quality development.

Foreign reporters watch the display boards at the Jining Digital Economy Exhibition Center on Oct 19, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

Workers assemble servers on an Inspur production line in Jinan, Shandong province. With the widespread use of big data and cloud computing technologies, China's largest server maker Inspur Group is leveraging its innovation capabilities to expand abroad. [Photo Provided to China Daily]