Visitors examine special productions of Shandong province, including seawater rice and maglev trains that can travel up to 600 kilometers per hour, during a promotional event of the province in Beijing on Tuesday. ZHU XINGXIN/CHINA DAILY

The province of Shandong has been ramping up efforts to boost the development of its new material industry and make it a new economic driver.

New materials is an emerging and strategic industry that plays a major role in the development of high technology in Shandong, said local authorities, adding that the province has launched a slew of measures and policies to facilitate the sector's high-quality development.

In 2018, the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology led the establishment of a special working team to boost the development of the new materials industry. The department then released a five-year (2018-2022) development plan and rolled out an annual report on the development of the new materials industry in Shandong in 2019.

A provincial new materials high-end think tank has also been established, with Gan Yong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, serving as the chief expert.

In addition, a provincial new materials industry association was set up. The association is led by Shandong University, one of the most prominent universities in the country.

According to official data, in the first three quarters of 2020, the industrial added value of the province's new energy and new materials industry increased by 16.9 percent year-on-year, 14 percentage points higher than that of enterprise above designated size, demonstrating strong innovation-led development momentum.