Jinan mayor Sun Shutao on July 26 introduced the blueprint of the Jinan Start-up Area for Growth and Drivers Transformation and spoke about the progress the area has made since it received approval in April.

According to Sun, the region will learn from Hebei's Xiongan New Area and Shanghai's Pudong New Area to promote the construction of a smart city. A smart city management center will be put into use this year to promote the application of intelligent scenarios such as unmanned driving.

The construction on 25 key public infrastructure projects with a total investment of 33.5 billion yuan ($5.19 billion) started on June 6. These projects cover sports centers, schools, hospitals and other service facilities. The area will fully implement the concept of green development to accelerate the construction of hydrogen energy utilization system.

More efforts will be made to improve its business environment. To date, 16 of the world's top 500 companies have opened branches in the area. The area has also signed 81 projects with a total investment of 254.4 billion yuan.

The region is expected to create a world-class business environment and build a demonstration zone for opening-up in the Yellow River Basin. By 2035, the area will form a modern industrial system and the construction of a green, smart and livable urban area will be completed.