East China's Shandong Province is seeing a booming new and high tech industry thanks to government support and the well-run technological innovation system of local enterprises, said a provincial government official at a new and high tech project negotiation conference.

Statistics show that Shandong has 15 new and high tech industrial development zones with more than 2500 enterprises.

The gross output value of Shandong's new and high tech industry exceeded 300 billion yuan (US$36 billion) in 2003. The enterprises have achieved a year-on-year growth of 35.7 percent in the output value during the first nine months of this year, while contributing US$4.1 billion worth of export turnover to the province.

The official said Shandong has a relatively complete scientific research system. It includes 85 universities and colleges, 101 provincial scientific research institutions, and 41 key laboratories of state or province level, employing a total of more than 2.7 million research staff.

This has dramatically helped the development of local enterprises, the official noted. So far 43 percent of large and medium-sized enterprises in Shandong have established their own research institutions.

The provincial government has supported the development of the new and high tech industry through favorable policies.

The government has created conditions to boost software development, serving the upgrade of light industry, textile, chemical industry, machine building, building materials industry and metallurgy, the official said.

He added that Shandong plans to expand its cooperation with advanced countries and regions to guarantee a steadily stable trend of the new and high tech industries.