On October 23, the Standing Committee of the Jinan Municipal Party Committee convened a meeting to analyze the economic and social development situation for the first three quarters. Since the beginning of this year, the city has taken the "Year of Project Empowerment" as its overarching guide, coordinating efforts across all aspects of economic and social development. The economy has operated on an generally stable track, in line with expectations, and the overall social situation has remained harmonious and stable, laying a solid foundation for achieving the full-year goals. With just over two months left before the end of the year, this is the final stretch for the year's work and a critical juncture for testing the effectiveness of the "Year of Project Empowerment." Looking back at the economic trajectory of the first three quarters, keywords such as consumption upgrading, foreign trade acceleration, and digital-intelligence efficiency enhancement form the core thread. They not only support a solid foundation for stable growth but also reflect deeper signals of Jinan's economic structure improving and its momentum renewing.
Right now, walking through Jinan's commercial districts and venues, the most intuitive feeling is "booming popularity." The Olympic Sports Center resounds with chorus after chorus at concerts, Sam's Club checkout lines stretch long, and on weekends the old commercial port and MixC are bustling with crowds. Behind this tangible vitality is the solid support of a steadily recovering and continuously upgrading consumer market. According to publicly released data from the Municipal Bureau of Statistics, from January to August, the retail sales of consumer goods by units above the designated size maintained rapid growth, significantly outpacing the national and provincial averages. This growth is by no means a simple recovery of traditional consumption but is steadily advancing along the direction of structural upgrading, scenario renewal, and chain extension. The consumption structure continues to renew. Smart green products and upgraded goods performed impressively, with new energy vehicles, wearable devices, and high-efficiency home appliances widely favored; the trade-in policy continued to gain traction, with robust sales in categories such as communication equipment, cultural and office supplies, and home appliances and audio-visual products. Online consumption showed abundant vitality, with the share of online retail sales by units above the designated size steadily rising, and new models such as livestream e-commerce and instant retail continuously expanding the boundaries of consumption. Consumption scenarios continued to expand. As one of the first batch of national pilot cities for new consumption formats, new models, and new scenarios, Jinan closely followed the requirements of the "Year of Project Empowerment" and continuously filled gaps in new supply. The first-store economy heated up markedly, with the first Sam's Club store surpassing 100 million yuan in sales in its first week after opening in May, attracting customers from surrounding cities to drive over specifically. The second store has already broken ground, and Jinan will become the first city in the province with "dual Sam's Clubs." Existing spaces were simultaneously renewed. After the sunken plaza of MixC was transformed into "Ziyou Island," the number of shops climbed, and the first-store signing rate reached 100%. The consumption chain continued to lengthen. Performance and sports event economy became a new growth engine. Phoenix Legend's six consecutive tour performances spanned the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, gathering tens of thousands of fans at the Olympic Sports Center, with ticket stubs redeemable for discounts at multiple scenic spots and hotels; the Lin Dan Cup Badminton Open drove surrounding consumption beyond 10 million yuan in three days, with out-of-province spectators accounting for over 70%, a single ticket stub linking the entire chain of accommodation, dining, and sightseeing. From "ticket stub rewards" to new car purchase subsidies, and then to online consumption promotion activities, Jinan has policies every month and linkages at every event, driving the conversion of short-term traffic into long-term retention and exploring an integrated path of "performance + cultural tourism + consumption + talent attraction."
If consumption is the ballast of domestic demand, then foreign trade is the barometer of openness. According to statistics from Jinan Customs, in the first three quarters, the city's total foreign trade imports and exports maintained high-speed growth, with the growth rate ranking first in the province, and the scales of imports, exports, and total trade all reaching historic highs for the same period. Behind the impressive growth rate, what deserves more attention is the deep qualitative transformation of the foreign trade structure. The gold content of exports continued to rise. Mechanical and electrical products already account for over 70% of exports, with the export scale of automobiles, computer parts, and electrical equipment steadily expanding, and high-value-added products such as the "new three" items and integrated circuits achieving multiplicative growth. More significantly, the export share of self-owned brand products has exceeded half, and Jinan manufacturing is transitioning from "product going global" to "brand going global." From ultra-high-voltage transformers sold to European energy storage stations, to high-power laser equipment covering dozens of countries worldwide, to self-developed high-end ion implanters delivered to overseas customers for the first time, Jinan's export calling card is upgrading from "bulk manufacturing" to "high-precision intelligent manufacturing." The supporting role of imports continued to strengthen. In the first three quarters, Jinan's import growth rate was significantly faster than that of exports, and the main growth drivers were not consumer goods but intermediate goods and raw materials urgently needed for industrial chain upgrading. Imports of key components such as computer parts, storage components, and integrated circuits grew substantially, imports of industrial raw materials such as metal ores remained at high levels, and imports of high-tech products expanded rapidly. This import list precisely confirms Jinan's strong demand for industrial domestic demand and the robust need for upgrading its industrial chain toward the high end. The soft power of channel services continued to upgrade. The construction of the China-Europe Railway Express (Ji-Qing) national-level assembly center progressed steadily, with continuous growth in the number of trains operated and a steady increase in the number of participating enterprises; the Jinan area of the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone introduced a "one-time testing, multi-country mutual recognition" model for power equipment exports, saving enterprises millions of yuan in testing costs. In the first three quarters, the number of enterprises in the city with actual import and export performance maintained double-digit growth, with various market entities working in concert to jointly support the foundation of foreign trade growth.
Digital and intelligent transformation was a high-frequency keyword in Jinan's economy this year and a key new track for the "Year of Project Empowerment." With the introduction of Shandong Province's "15th Five-Year Plan" for building a digital powerhouse, Jinan, holding multiple national-level digital-intelligence licenses, is continuously converting policy momentum into development momentum, and digital-intelligence empowerment has quietly entered factories, fields, and daily life. Digital intelligence is deeply embedded in industrial production. Jinan has a complete range of industrial categories and is a natural testing ground for artificial intelligence. A coal chemical enterprise in Zhangqiu joined hands with local equipment enterprises and an industrial internet platform to install an "AI brain" for its mill, deploying hundreds of sensors to collect data and relying on large models to solve the challenge of precise load judgment, achieving automatic parameter control and fault prediction, with significant cost reduction and carbon reduction results. Such cases are not isolated; "AI + manufacturing" is moving from pilot attempts to batch implementation. Digital intelligence is reshaping the form of innovation and entrepreneurship. This year, Jinan took the lead nationally in laying out a digital-intelligence ecosystem OPC (one-person company) community, a highly representative exploration. One person, one computer, and several intelligent agents can complete the entire chain of work from R&D to marketing, with independent legal person status, enabling participation in bidding and connection with capital. Targeting the pain points of single-person entrepreneurship such as expensive computing power, lack of scenarios, and few orders, Jinan coordinates inclusive computing power, opens compliant data, and distributes industrial orders, systematically lowering the threshold for AI entrepreneurship and creating an entrepreneurial environment of "moving in with just a brain." Digital-intelligence dividends reach the grassroots level directly. At the just-concluded 2026 Artificial Intelligence Industry Conference, the intelligent noodle-cooking robot that serves a meal in 20 seconds, the humanoid robot "Walker Taishan" that performs martial arts and dances, and the L4-level autonomous driving bus "Zhi Xiaolan" that autonomously avoids obstacles and stops at stations on the Yellow River Avenue all allowed citizens to intuitively feel the everyday presence of artificial intelligence. Data element reform also reached the fields. Pingyin roses built a credit model based on industrial data, and the "Rose Loan" has cumulatively granted over 120 million yuan in credit, turning agricultural data into real credit assets. Government services continued to reduce burdens, with the AI social worker "Quan Xiaozhi" connected to over 680 communities, serving more than 600,000 people. From workshops to fields, from government affairs to people's livelihoods, digital-intelligence dividends are reaching the "last meter" step by step.
In the first three quarters, the economy operated on a generally stable track, in line with expectations. How well the full-year goals are completed ultimately depends on fourth-quarter performance. The meeting of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee has already clarified the work priorities, which will coordinate efforts in "optimizing increments, containing decrements, and responding to variables" — promoting accelerated industrial growth, providing categorized services to key enterprises, and cultivating industrial enterprises below designated size. Stabilizing the operation of service industries above designated size, stabilizing growth in key industries, and making good use of service industry guidance funds. Continuing to expand effective investment, advancing project planning and construction, focusing on breakthroughs in industrial investment and manufacturing investment, and fully utilizing policy-based funds. Consolidating the positive consumption trend, advancing the attraction and landing of consumption-related projects, cultivating and strengthening the performance and sports event economy, and promoting the stable and healthy development of real estate and the construction industry. Continuing to optimize the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, concentrating efforts on building innovation and entrepreneurship clusters, and continuously improving the quality and efficiency of achievement transformation. Accelerating the expansion and quality improvement of foreign trade and foreign investment, striving to maintain good foreign trade growth, and solidly advancing key foreign-funded project construction. Promoting stable operation of fiscal and financial sectors, doing well in fiscal revenue increase and land transfer, and strengthening financial empowerment. The bottom line of people's livelihoods must be guarded at all times. Fully advancing the battle against air pollution, promoting continuous improvement of air quality. Grasping safety production work with urgency, precision, and thoroughness, and resolutely preventing and containing major and serious accidents. Effectively safeguarding the bottom line of people's livelihood security, completing livelihood practical matters with high quality, and coordinating autumn grain production, forest fire prevention, and warm winter arrangements. The fourth quarter is both a closing season and a planning season. While sprinting toward the full-year goals, Jinan will enhance the forward-looking nature of its work, scientifically plan next year's target tasks and key measures, continue to build project reserves, and lay a solid foundation for sustained improvement during the "15th Five-Year Plan." With just over two months remaining, the time is urgent and critical. By implementing every deployment and achieving results in every task, Jinan's economy will take more solid and steady steps toward stability and improvement.
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