Jinan National Supercomputing Center [Photo/Jinan Daily]

Jinan's spending on research and development (R&D) accounted for 2.66 percent of its GDP in 2019, ranking first in Shandong province, according to the Jinan science and technology bureau.

The city's technology contract turnover is expected to reach 20 billion yuan ($2.85 billion) this year, and the number of high-tech companies in the city is expected to exceed 2,000.

In 2019, a total of 22 provincial academician workstations were built in Jinan. An additional 23 R&D institutions were established for companies at or above the provincial level, bringing the total to 407, and more than 47,000 valid trademarks were registered, bringing the total to 185,000.

The Jinan government has been making efforts to support the construction of innovation platforms and has launched several already, including the Shandong Institute of Quantum Science and Technology and Jinan Supercomputing Center Science and Technology Park.

More innovative companies are emerging, which have boosted the city's real economy. Jinan is currently home to a total of 46 gazelle enterprises, a term used to describe small and medium-sized enterprises with high-profile growth by the local government. The number of national, provincial and municipal enterprises reached 1,013, 851 and 1,367 respectively.

Officials stressed that greater financial support and an improved R&D investment policy system increased the efficiency of R&D spending. The government plans to ramp up efforts to create a favorable environment for future research and development.