On April 10, the State Council Information Office held a news conference on promoting high-quality development on the topic of "Shandong practice in Chinese modernization: green, low-carbon and high-quality development."

[Photo/scio.gov.cn]

Zhou Naixiang, deputy secretary of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and governor of Shandong province, outlined Shandong province's development goals at the news conference.

Shandong province aims to achieve a GDP growth of over 5 percent in 2024 and increase residents' per capita disposable income by around 5.5 percent, Zhou noted.

To achieve these goals, Shandong will focus on fostering new quality productive forces, including strengthening scientific and technological innovation, promoting industrial upgrading, attracting and cultivating talent, and promoting a virtuous cycle of science, technology, education, and talent. It will accelerate the development of a modern industrial system, including six traditional industries, nine advantageous industries, nine emerging industries, and seven future industries.

In addition, the province will vigorously promote rural vitalization and accelerate the development of livable and prosperous rural areas. It strives to ensure that annual grain output remains above 55 billion kilograms, and the output of vegetables, fruits, aquatic products, meat, and dairy products ranks among the top in China. It aims for its total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery to continue leading the country.

According to Zhou, the province will work hard to become a new hub for opening-up to the outside world. It is set to attract more high-quality investment, promote the stable growth and improvement of foreign trade and foreign investment, and develop a top-notch, market-oriented, rule-of-law-based, and internationalized business environment.

It is also determined to foster the marine economy. It will accelerate the development of a world-class port cluster and strengthen the marine engineering equipment, marine biomedicine and other advantageous industrial clusters. It strives to achieve a throughput of over 2 billion metric tons of cargo at ports along the coast of Shandong, and aims to have its proportion of excellent water quality in nearshore waters not be lower than 95.6 percent.

Shandong is working to further reduce carbon emissions and other forms of pollution, increase afforestation efforts and maintain national-level beautiful rivers, lakes and bays. It is set to accelerate the construction of five clean energy bases, including ones for nuclear power and offshore wind power, and encourage more cities to use nuclear energy for heating.

The province is also focusing on improving people's wellbeing. This year, it will create more than 1.1 million new urban jobs and 100,000 new public service positions in urban and rural areas, renovate 560,000 households in old urban communities, and improve education, medical care, social security, old-age support, and culture areas, Zhou added.