The General Office of Shandong Provincial Government recently issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Advantageous Modern Industrial Clusters + Artificial Intelligence (the Opinions), proposing that the ecological chain of artificial intelligence (AI) industry should be initially established by 2022 by concentrating efforts on the benign interaction, integration, innovation and collaborative development of advantageous modern industrial clusters and AI technologies. The document is also the first “AI +” document released by a provincial government in China, according to a press conference held on May 23.

Overviewing Shandong’s development, the Opinions sets two periodical targets. First, by 2022, the ecological chain of AI industry will be preliminarily established; the development of new business forms and models based on the integration of AI and industries will speed up; the intelligent economy will become an important new economic growth driver. Second, by 2025, Shandong’s AI industry will edge into the advanced ranks in China, integrate more closely with the “top ten” mainstay industries, and emerge as a first-class industrial cluster with great influence in China and even the world. Closely combined with the current strategy of Shandong, the Opinions, focusing on the “top ten” mainstay industries, puts forward 10 major intelligent upgrading projects and urges intensified efforts to solve the pain points and difficulties that restrict the intelligent and high-quality development of key industries by combining the scientific and technological achievements of the new generation of AI technologies with Shandong’s advantageous modern industrial clusters one by one. For the five emerging industrial clusters among the upgrading projects, Shandong will focus on AI technologies to promote their “growth and scale”; for another five traditional industrial clusters, it will improve their “level and strength” by leveraging AI development.

Placing equal emphasis on the development of AI industry and the promotion of industrial application, Shandong will roll out six special actions, namely, the enhancement of integrated innovation ability, the cultivation of smart economy, the empowerment of industrial Internet, the improvement of the quality and efficiency of intelligent manufacturing, the upgrading of AI infrastructure, and the construction of service guarantee system. “Instead of diffusing its power to do anything well, Shandong aims to be precise and practical.” According to Wang Wanliang, first level inspector of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shandong Province, the six special actions, which can strengthen R&D base, promote key breakthroughs, cultivate ecological systems, enhance the integration, develop industrial clusters and increase supporting services, are present-based and forward-looking with implementability and phased targets. Therefore, they are the aiming point and great support of the implementation of the Opinions. Meanwhile, in order to ensure the implementation of the Opinions, the 10 key projects, 6 major special actions and 5 safeguard measures have been refined into 74 specific tasks. Based on the functions of different departments, the leading and cooperating departments have been identified for carrying out these tasks.

The first cohort of 150 pilot demonstration enterprises and projects identified by market-oriented approaches has also been issued with the Opinions. They are selected from 306 projects compiled by the special group for “top ten” mainstay industries, recommended by the municipal authorities and direct summited by enterprises, with a total investment of RMB 27.58 billion, including 30 AI industry-related projects (with a total investment of RMB 1.43 billion) and 120 projects targeting integrated development (with a total investment of RMB 26.15 billion). In virtue of these demonstration enterprises and projects, Shandong will give priority to fostering a number of excellent products and solutions in the fields of intelligent products, core foundations, key technical equipment, etc. In addition, it will put forth effort to shore up weak links of industrial development and focus on the “top ten” mainstay industries, in a bid to create a cohort of scenarios for AI deep application, form replicable and scalable new formats, new models and typical cases, and strive to improve the quality of integrated development.

AI is a strategic technology leading a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, which plays a leading role and has a strong driving force in the industry.  The reporter learned from the press conference that the industrial application of the new generation of AI is still in its infancy. However, enjoying complete industrial base and a sound industrial system with great potential, Shandong has only a modest gap with developed countries and advanced regions. The promotion mechanism is another major innovation project following the program of replacing old growth drivers with new ones initiatively proposed by Shandong Provincial Party Committee and the People’s Government of Shandong Province. It will accelerate the integration of the science and technology chain with the industrial chain, the capital chain and the talent chain, and empower the “top ten” mainstay industries to gain full momentum.  (Reporter: Fu Yuting)