An employee operates equipment at a smart production facility in Yantai, Shandong province, in November. TANG KE/FOR CHINA DAILY

Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to promote coordinated development between urban and rural areas and between regions to improve the structure of the economy.

Last year, the province rolled out new supporting measures and launched several major projects to ensure implementation of the coordinated regional development strategy, major regional strategies, the functional zoning strategy, and the new urbanization strategy.

Shandong is striving to build a Shandong Peninsula city cluster with global influence, and making efforts to support the development of Jinan as a national central city and Qingdao as a global maritime central city; it also seeks to promote the integrated development of the provincial capital, Jiaodong, and southern Shandong economic circles.

The province is advancing people-centered new urbanization and working faster to grant permanent urban residency to eligible people who move from rural to urban areas.

Shandong is also leveraging the role of city clusters and metropolitan areas to promote coordinated development of large, medium, and small cities and push forward urbanization centered on county seats.

In order to accelerate the development of regional integration, Shandong has established provincial-level administrative bodies for new districts, issued and implemented 28 support policies, and delegated more than 100 provincial-level administrative powers to promote the construction of new provincial-level districts.