The second plenary session of the 12th Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opened in Jinan, capital of Shandong province on Feb 13.

Major political, economic and social issues in the province will be discussed during the five-day session.

Liu Jiayi, Party secretary of Shandong province, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

Liu said 2018 was a remarkable year for Shandong as it made significant progress in promoting the shift of old growth drivers to new ones, in reform and opening up development as well as in poverty alleviation.

The province's GDP reached 7.65 trillion yuan (about $1.13 trillion) in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 6.4 percent.

A total of 2.703 million people were lifted out of poverty last year.

Liu said that the province will continue to work vigorously to improve livelihoods and promote rural revitalization in 2019 in order to lay a solid foundation for winning the battle against poverty.

Fu Zhifang, chairman of the CPPCC Shandong Committee reviewed the work of last year and introduced the major projects scheduled for 2019.

Since the first session of the 12th Shandong Committee of CPPCC, 936 proposals have been received, of which 841 have been put on file.

The proposals focus on many aspects such as industrial upgrading, ecological civilization construction, social assistance system improvement, high-quality development, rural revitalization and further improvement in people's livelihoods.

The second plenary session of the 12th Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) commences on Feb 13 in Jinan, capital city of Shandong province. [Photo/iqilu.com]

Liu Jiayi, Party secretary of Shandong province, delivers a speech at the opening day of the second plenary session of the 12th Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on Feb 13 in Jinan. [Photo/dzwww.com]