Shandong aims big in digital economy that the provincial government has released a plan to guide the sector's development. [Photo/VCG] 

The Information Office of Shandong Provincial Government held a press conference to announce the "Digital Shandong Development Plan (2018-2022)" on Feb 27.

Ma Yuenan, director of the Provincial Bureau of Big Data, Lian Kai, deputy director of the Provincial Bureau of Big Data and Sun Laibin, deputy director of the Provincial New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion Comprehensive Experimental Zone Construction Office attended the conference. 

The plan has been formulated to fully promote the construction of digital Shandong.

According to the plan, Shandong will focus on three tasks including building the digital capabilities of the government, developing the digital economy and building a digital society under the support of digital infrastructures, data resource systems and network security guarantees.

It will promote the digital transformation and development of all sectors of the economy and society, accelerate new and old kinetic energy conversion and promote the high-quality development of the province, and provide a strong new engine for “going ahead and fully innovating”.

The plan will support Jinan, Qingdao and Yantai to build a national leading digital economy cluster and a new smart city benchmark. It will also support other cities to intensively build a digital infrastructure, featuring the digital economy and integrating digital applications.

Meanwhile, the province will strengthen digital economic cooperation at home and abroad to create a new impetus for digital opening up.

The plan is a central part of the provincial government’s efforts in developing the digital economy of Shandong.

By 2022, it is estimated that the proportion of Shandong's digital economy that will make up its GDP will increase from 35 percent to more than 45 percent, with an average annual increase of more than 2 percent.