Jinan is speeding up efforts to promote high-quality development amidst attempts to further fuel the shift of growth drivers from old to new, noted Wang Zhonglin, Party secretary of Jinan, East China's Shandong province.

Wang, also a deputy to the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, made the remarks when answering questions from reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing national legislature meeting in Beijing.

"Jinan hopes to become a leader in high-quality development through reform and innovation, and to contribute to Shandong's development," said Wang.

 Jinan was approved by the State Council to be one of the pilot zones for the shift of growth drivers from old to new in 2018.

 Since then, the city has explored effective ways to promote industrial transformation and seen fruitful results.

 Wang stressed that emerging industries have proved to be an important driver to support the city's high-quality economic development.

 The big data, information technology, quantum technology, and artificial intelligence sectors are being given priority as important areas for development.

 In 2018, the output value of the technical industry accounted for 56 percent of the total industrial output value above the designated scale.

 Its digital economy reached 290 billion yuan ($43.2 billion) in value, accounting for about 37 percent of the city's total economic output. Its software and information service sectors ranked first in the province.

 Officials said it was important to expand the emerging high-tech industries while seeking high-quality development. So far, Jinan has built the Jinan National Supercomputing Center. The new generation supercomputer prototype Sunway E-class  was put into operation at the center in2018.

The city will continue to attract foreign investment and encourage them to go further into intelligent manufacturing and strategic emerging industries, according to Wang.