Vessels loading cargo bound for the United States at a port in Rongcheng, Shandong province. [Photo by Yang Zhili/For China Daily]

The second batch of 13 provincial-level strategic emerging industrial clusters was recently released by the Shandong Development and Reform Commission, bringing the total number to 25.

Strategic emerging industries include next-generation information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, green environmental protection, aerospace, marine equipment and other industries, covering the vast majority of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, and representing the direction of future industrial transformation.

Chen Hua, director of Institute of Contemporary Finance at Shandong University of Finance and Economics, noted that strategic emerging industries play a vital role for a country and a region to cultivate new driving forces and gain future competitive advantages.

"It is especially important for Shandong, which is in the process of transforming old economic growth drivers to new ones," Chen said.

Shandong has attached great importance to the cultivation of strategic emerging industrial clusters, and has fostered a number of industrial clusters with strong innovation abilities.

In October 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission announced the first batch of 66 national strategic emerging industry clusters. Shandong had seven industrial clusters selected, ranking first in the country.

Now the scale of the seven national strategic emerging industry clusters in Shandong has exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($157.3 billion).