Recently, the Shandong Development and Reform Commission and the Shandong Provincial Department of Finance jointly issued the Work Plan for Piloting the High-quality Development of the County Economy in Shandong Province, releasing a total of 40 pilot counties (cities and districts). This pilot program is divided into three types: leading development, distinctive development, and leapfrog development. Ten counties (cities and districts) including Lixia District in Jinan City are selected to pilot leading development; ten counties (cities and districts) including Yiyuan County are chosen to pilot distinctive development; twenty counties (cities and districts) including Boshan District in Zibo City are selected to pilot leapfrog development.

According to the document, the three types of pilot projects have different orientations. Specifically, the leading development pilot project focuses on counties (cities and districts) in Shandong that have strong comprehensive strength, gather growth drivers for innovation, and can play an exemplary role in the province; the distinctive development pilot project chiefly selects counties that have won advanced or progressive titles in the differentiated evaluation of the high-quality development of the county economy or have been rated among the Top Ten Counties by, for example, industry and modern agriculture in Shandong in recent years; the leapfrog development pilot project primarily selects financially challenged counties that have relatively weak economic strength but possess certain development potential in Shandong and also considers special areas such as areas famous for revolutionary heritage, key ecological functional areas, and independent industrial and mining areas.