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Shandong Data Industry Plan: What Foreign Founders Need to Know

A practical breakdown of Shandong's new data industry implementation opinion, covering enterprise cultivation targets, sector priorities, talent, funding and cross-border data services relevant to foreign founders operating in China.

Shandong's Data Industry Push: Key Takeaways for Foreign Founders

Shandong's provincial government has issued an implementation opinion aimed at accelerating high-quality development of its data industry. The plan is built around strengthening data as a production factor and using artificial intelligence to drive growth, while cultivating data enterprises and expanding the sector. For foreign founders considering a Chinese entity, a joint venture, or a data-related operation in Shandong, the document signals where provincial support, incentives and infrastructure are being directed. Below is a structured summary of the measures, framed for practical business planning.

Enterprise Cultivation and Growth Targets

A provincial cultivation library

The province will establish a provincial-level data enterprise cultivation library and run ongoing intake across six categories: data resources, data technology, data services, data applications, data security and data infrastructure. A tiered cultivation program will identify and support growth-stage data companies, with eligible firms able to access financial services and computing power support under existing policies.

Headline 2028 targets

• More than 25,000 data enterprises across the province
• More than 70 listed companies among them
• More than 500 unicorn and gazelle enterprises

These figures are provincial targets, not commitments to individual firms, but they indicate the scale of the ecosystem the province intends to build.

Converting and attracting enterprises

Traditional data-intensive companies, industry leaders and internet platform companies are encouraged to spin off data businesses as independent operating entities through new establishment or restructuring. Traditional third-party professional firms — legal, accounting, audit and asset valuation — are encouraged to extend into data compliance certification, security auditing, quality evaluation, asset valuation and risk assessment.

Cities are encouraged to refine investment promotion policies for data enterprises, identify priority targets, and make use of idle industrial parks and office buildings. Options include equity contributions and cooperative development to host data operations of leading internet companies.

Sector Priorities: Where Opportunities Sit

Data annotation and processing

Support is directed at basic, large-scale data annotation in cities and counties with suitable foundations, serving AI development. Higher-value work includes intelligent annotation and 4D annotation, plus complex annotation for financial technology and biomedical fields, moving the industry toward technology-intensive, higher-value segments.

Data resource development

Enterprises are encouraged to invest in technology across collection and aggregation, computing and storage, circulation and trading, development and utilization, and security governance. Firms can form innovation consortia with upstream and downstream partners, universities and research institutes. Provincial key laboratories and technology innovation centers are to be used for research and commercialization.

Data asset value

Authorized public data operators will expand product and service categories, with vertical platforms in marine, healthcare and transportation sectors. The province will develop data brokerage, consulting and custody services, promote data asset recognition, measurement and disclosure by public institutions and enterprises, and cautiously explore data asset operating models such as equity contributions and financing guarantees.

Clusters and supply chains

Jinan and Qingdao are piloting high-standard data industry cluster zones. Other cities are encouraged to develop specialized, smaller clusters using existing parks and commercial buildings. By 2028 the province aims to form more than 30 data industry clusters, with average annual sector growth above 20%. Chain-leading enterprises are encouraged to open data, computing and other resources to smaller firms, and the province will map its data industry and related project and scenario lists.

AI Integration and Traditional Industry Links

The plan promotes two-way integration between the data and AI industries, including data-as-a-service, knowledge-as-a-service and model-as-a-service offerings. Enterprises are encouraged to build high-quality datasets, industry knowledge bases and evaluation datasets to support large model training. By 2027, the goal is more than 50 high-quality industry datasets across 16 key fields including scientific research and healthcare. A "model-data resonance" initiative will explore combined data, technology, scenario and funding approaches.

For traditional industries, "Data Has a Date" matchmaking activities will connect data products with application scenarios. Counties and districts may pilot integration paths in modern agriculture, transportation, healthcare and urban governance. Traditional firms are encouraged to recruit data enterprise "partners" and to license accumulated data resources to data companies on market terms, sharing value-added returns.

Data Supply, Talent and Funding

Data supply

Public data open lists will be updated annually, and authorized operation mechanisms will supply high-value public data products to enterprises. Leading firms and platform companies are encouraged to open data while complying with classification and grading protection rules.

Talent

Qualifying data enterprises may adopt a chief data officer system. Universities, research institutes and firms are encouraged to jointly build data industry colleges and training bases. By 2028, the province aims to support universities in building about 10 key data-related disciplines and adding about 5 doctoral and master's programs in the field. Technical colleges will be supported in offering data-related majors such as IoT application technology and AI application technology.

Funding

Provincial fiscal funds will support data enterprises, the sector and pilot projects, and qualifying projects may be recommended for central budget investment. Eligible firms can broaden financing through listings, science and technology innovation bonds, and data asset securitization (ABS) in compliance with regulations. Government investment funds will increase support, and relending policies for technological innovation and upgrading will be used to guide financial institutions toward products suited to data enterprises.

Infrastructure and Going Global

The province will accelerate an integrated provincial computing power service platform and support secure, trusted data infrastructure, including enterprise, industry and city trusted data spaces linked to provincial infrastructure. A "Qi Computing Interconnection" initiative targets millisecond-level network access within city domains, with Jinan and Qingdao piloting millisecond computing use.

For outbound business, the "Shanhai Jing Going Global Comprehensive Service Port" will provide public services and solutions for data enterprises. A cross-border data circulation service system will rely on the Qingdao international communications business gateway to provide low-latency, high-bandwidth and secure international data transmission. Subject to compliance, new models such as "inbound data processing" and "token going global" will be explored. Cities are encouraged to pursue international cooperation and national pilot programs in the data field.

What This Means for Foreign Founders

Foreign founders should note that the plan is a provincial policy framework: it sets direction and support mechanisms rather than automatic entitlements. Practical implications include potential access to cultivation programs, computing resources and financing channels for qualifying data businesses; opportunities in annotation, vertical data platforms and AI dataset development; and a developing cross-border data service infrastructure centered on Qingdao. Because data security and classification rules apply, any data-related activity should be structured with local compliance advice.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Ready to explore setting up in Shandong or elsewhere in China? Foreign founders can contact ChinaMNC on WhatsApp / WeChat at +86 153 1898 8535 for help registering and operating a company in China.