A new energy vehicle on display at a department store in Yantai, Shandong province. [Photo by Tang Ke/For China Daily]

Shandong province has issued an array of policies on promoting the high-quality development of the real economy, with a special chapter outlining key measures to enhance the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy.

The province is ramping up efforts to transform data resources into productivity. "The digital economy is an accelerator and amplifier for the new type of industrialization and we will launch a series of actions to achieve deeper integration," said Wang Jianfu, chief economist from the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shandong province.

On the one hand, Shandong is focusing on digital technology innovation and application, consolidating its leading role in servers, smart home appliances, and ultra-high-definition display devices, as well as accelerating the development of potential industries, such as satellites, Beidou navigation, and virtual reality.

On the other hand, the province is speeding up the digital empowerment of enterprises above designated size to bolster data collection, transmission, storage, calculation, management, and application in a wider range.

Shandong is exploring a data circulation system boasting the factors of "place, platform, product, and transaction" to promote the full conversion of data dividends into industry development.

"In terms of the integration of digital economy and real economy, stimulating the digital transformation of industries has been a priority, especially in the area of smart manufacturing. Industrial software application is particularly important to achieve overall linkage and efficient coordination across the research and development, supply chain, production, and marketing domains," said Wei Daisen, general manager of the digital enterprise division at cloud computing company Inspur.

Wei added that smart manufacturing is the core of digital transformation in the industry and deep application of industrial software is also key.

In February, Inspur launched the Cloud Action in Shandong for Empowering Industry and Inspiring Talent, which involves building a relatively complete industrial software product system to support networked collaborative manufacturing across workshops, factories, and regions.

The newly released policies state that it is necessary to promote the value of data and build high-level big data trading centers. Shandong boasts a large population, complete industrial system, abundant data resources, and application scenarios, especially in industries like the medical and healthcare, marine, and intelligent manufacturing sectors.

"By building industry data trading centers in these fields, we can give full play to Shandong's own strengths and help advance the high-quality development of advantageous industries," said the person in charge of the province's big data bureau. 

The policies will promote Shandong's continuous strengthening of the "double-engines" of industrial digitization and digital industrialization.