In 2024, Tai'an in Shandong accelerates the construction of a new system for high-quality and efficient service industry. [Photo by Chen Yang/for chinadaily.com.cn]

In 2024, Tai'an in Shandong accelerated the construction of a new system for a high-quality and efficient service industry, achieving stable and rapid growth with a continued positive trend.

According to official data, the added value of the city's service industry reached 173.22 billion yuan ($23.8 billion) in 2024, marking a year-on-year increase of 5.4 percent. This growth rate matched the province's average and surpassed the national average by 0.4 percentage points, elevating Tai'an to the eighth position.

The service industry's contribution to economic growth was significant, accounting for 45.8 percent and boosting economic growth by 2.6 percentage points. Tax revenue from the service sector reached 14.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1 percent, which was 2 percentage points higher than the city's average, and represented 43.5 percent of the total tax revenue.

The industrial structure in Tai'an continued to be optimized in 2024. The modern service industry achieved an added value of 93.84 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.2 percent, surpassing the province's growth rate by 0.2 percentage points. Key sectors such as leasing and business services, scientific research and technical services, information transmission software and information technology services, and financial industries developed rapidly. These sectors combined to account for 22 percent of the total service industry, providing strong support for the city's efforts to cultivate new quality productive forces and better serve the real economy.

The number of market entities in the city grew rapidly in 2024, with a total of 490,000 service industry market entities. The number of large-scale service industry enterprises also continued to grow rapidly for two years, with 163 new additions throughout the year, surpassing 600 in total.