Recently, the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shandong Province organized the identification of characteristic industrial cluster cultivation in Shandong Province in 2025. After clusters' voluntary applications, recommendations by cities, expert reviews and online announcements, 35 clusters, including the high-end software characteristic industrial cluster in Jinan Innovation Zone, were recognized as Shandong's characteristic industrial clusters in 2025.
In recent years, Shandong has focused on both cultivating high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and promoting the expansion and improvement of characteristic industrial clusters, accelerating the high-quality development of SMEs. In 2024 alone, Shandong cultivated eight new national characteristic industrial clusters for SMEs, bringing the total to 23—the highest in China. It has also fostered 136 provincial-level characteristic industrial clusters for SMEs.