An employee welds equipment at a machinery manufacturer in Qingzhou, Shandong province. WANG JILIN/FOR CHINA DAILY

Shandong province is off to a flying start this year, with its GDP surpassing 2 trillion yuan ($289.3 billion) in the first quarter of the year, a year-on-year increase of 4.7 percent, demonstrating a stable and accelerated economic recovery.

With the COVID-19 pandemic now steadily controlled, the province's orderly production and life have gradually recovered, with its overall economy picking up.

The added value of Shandong's primary industry reached 73.8 billion yuan for the first quarter, up 3.8 percent year-on-year. The added value of its secondary industry hit 787.8 billion yuan, up 5.1 percent, while the added value of its tertiary industry was 1.18 trillion yuan, up 4.5 percent.

Shandong, a major agricultural province in the country, has been working hard to enhance the stability of its agricultural product supply. In the first quarter, the total output value of its agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery reached 141.38 billion yuan, up 3.9 percent year-on-year.

It has fully implemented the three-year action plan for building a strong province in advanced manufacturing, accelerated the recovery of industrial capacity and improved efficiency, as well as maintained a steady and positive trend in industrial production. In the first quarter, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 5.9 percent year-on-year.

Over the three-month period, fixed asset investment grew 6.5 percent year-on-year in Shandong.

The province's imports posted a slightly increase of 1.4 percent year-on-year to 305.34 billion yuan, while its exports climbed to 459.29 billion yuan, up 12.3 percent over the same period last year.

The trade structure continued to improve in Shandong, with general trade imports and exports increasing by 5.3 percent, accounting for 65.5 percent of the province's total.