Leadership Insights | Xi's Stories: Shandong-New Practices of Local Governments in the New Era

Strengthening the competitiveness and overall benefits of the industrial market 

As the first Chinese province with an agricultural output value exceeding a trillion yuan, Shandong has resolutely taken up the responsibility as a major agricultural powerhouse in recent years. It has not only attached great importance to not only the development of agriculture, but also made remarkable achievements in agricultural science and technology innovation and agricultural modernization.

Today, Shandong has become a national model of agricultural development, leading the country in agricultural modernization in this new era. 

Shandong allocated 76.3 billion yuan for the rural revitalization strategy at or above the provincial level.

It has accelerated the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. 

The total output of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in the province reached 1.25 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%. 

The province’s total grain output was 56.55 billion kilograms and the yield per mu was 449.5 kilograms, both setting a new record.

Dezhou City in the province has built China’s first demonstration area for farmland with a yield of 1.5 tons per mu. 

Shandong currently has seven national advantageous and characteristic industrial clusters and 15 modern agricultural industrial parks. 

It has more than 10,000 agricultural product processing enterprises above the designated size.

1.245 million new jobs were created in urban areas, and 619,000 new public welfare jobs were created in urban and rural areas.

245 primary and secondary schools were newly renovated or expanded, effectively ensuring that 1.8 million school-age children were enrolled in the fall semester. 

Shandong passed the acceptance test as the country’s first demonstration province for the integration of medical care and elderly care. 

Six new national-level regional medical center projects were approved. 

Tertiary infectious disease hospitals have covered all of the 16 prefectural-level cities in the province. 

(Source: Shandong Municipal Government Work Report 2024)

Building a pilot zone for green, low-carbon and high-quality development is a historic mission entrusted to Shandong by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. Keeping this mission in mind, Shandong undertakes the responsibility as a major agricultural province. Along the journey of the new era, the province is making every effort to build itself a model of rural revitalization. It is leading rural revitalization with agricultural modernization, promoting comprehensive progress of rural economy and society, and providing valuable, reproducible experience for rural revitalization across the country.