General introduction

Shandong province has been accelerating its conversion of new and old kinetic energy in recent years and striving to improve the international competitiveness of its economy.

In 2017, Shandong's GDP reached 7.27 trillion yuan ($1.14 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percent. GDP per capita was 72,851 yuan, an increase of 7.6 percent year-on-year. The per capita disposable income of urban dwellers amounted to 36,789 yuan, with that of rural dwellers reaching 15,118 yuan.

The ratio of primary to secondary to tertiary industry in Shandong was 6.7: 45.3: 48.0 in 2017. After Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan provinces, Shandong was fifth in the top 10 economically strongest provinces in China to change from the "secondary, tertiary and primary" industrial pattern to the "tertiary, secondary and primary" one.

The value added of the provincial agricultural sector in 2017 reached 280.23 billion yuan, increasing by 4.6 percent from 2016. Grain output reached a record 47.23 million tons.

The province's industrial value added totaled 2.87 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percent. The output value of the province's hi-tech enterprises in 2017 accounted for 35 percent of the industrial output of enterprises above the designated size, 1.2 percent higher than that of 2016.

Sales conditions in Shandong in 2017 also continued to improve. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.36 trillion yuan, a growth rate of 9.8 percent over the previous year. Tourist consumption totaled 920.03 billion yuan, increasing by 14.5 percent.

The province's further opening-up yielded fruitful results. The total volume of its foreign trade in 2017 was 1.78 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.2 percent. In 2017, the number of newly founded foreign-invested enterprises totaled 1,479, with contractual foreign capital reaching 186.08 billion yuan, increasing by 32.5 percent over 2016. Shandong's foreign investment totaled 37.75 billion yuan.

Shandong is also showing great competitiveness in regard to large foreign contract projects in all fields. Seven Shandong enterprises were included on the list of the world's top 250 international contractors in 2017 prepared by Engineering News Records. The figure of seven puts Shandong among the top provinces as it is a solid share of the 68 Chinese enterprises on the list.

There are 136 provincial-level development zones and 37 State-level development zones in the province, including Qingdao West Coast New Area, Jinan Hi-tech Industrial Development, and Shandong Peninsula National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone.