Open the door to welcome distant guests and strategize towards the future. The 7th Qingdao Summit of Multinational Corporate Leaders was held from June 15th to 17th. On the shore of Jiaozhou Bay, Shandong Port Group's Qingdao Port Terminal is surrounded by tower cranes, container trucks shuttle through the area, and tens of thousands of tons of giant ships sound their horns as they enter the port. The loading and unloading of goods flows smoothly, creating a bustling scene.
On the coast of the Yellow Sea, thousands of sails compete; Above the azure, there is a surge of kinetic energy. Since the first Qingdao Summit of Multinational Corporation Leaders was held in 2019, Shandong has continued to deepen reforms, actively benchmark international high standard economic and trade rules, comprehensively enhance its level of opening up to the outside world, and communicate and cooperate more closely with multinational corporations. The open economy has continuously reached a new level and is accelerating to become a new highland for further attracting foreign investment and deepening international cooperation in opening up to the outside world.
Building a high-energy platform to further deepen international cooperation
This summit has received widespread attention and positive response from multinational corporations worldwide. A total of 425 corporate guests attended, including 322 guests from overseas multinational corporations from 44 countries and regions across six continents, covering developed economies and emerging market countries. The summit, with the theme of "Multinational Companies and China - Joining Hands for a New Future in the 15th Five Year Plan", is based on the important milestone of the beginning of the 15th Five Year Plan, closely related to the core positioning of deepening cooperation between multinational companies and China, and comprehensively builds a high-level platform for policy communication, industry docking, and economic and trade cooperation.
This summit will feature 29 main events in three categories, including the opening ceremony and main forum, meetings and talks, and parallel forums, as well as multiple industry chain investment promotion supporting activities. Each activity closely revolves around the main line of cultivating new quality productivity, promoting the deep integration of trade, investment, and consumption.
Our innovation summit's industry docking model has shifted from 'comprehensive coverage' to 'precise empowerment'. Focusing on the 'focus points' of Shandong's development and the' demand points' of multinational corporations, we organize 'one-on-one' supply and demand docking meetings to guide multinational corporations to deeply participate in the intelligent and green upgrading of traditional industries with advanced technology and management experience, "said Wang Lei, Director of the Department of Commerce of Shandong Province.
For many years, the Qingdao Summit of Multinational Corporation Leaders has been a major high-level platform for international exchange and cooperation carefully crafted by Shandong Province, effectively promoting policy dialogue, industry docking, and project cooperation between the government, local enterprises, and multinational corporations.
Mutual benefit, walking on the same path. The SCO demonstration zone, also located on the coast of Bohai Bay, has continued to support international economic and trade cooperation in recent years. Previously, the "Export to China · SCO Selection" China (Shandong) - SCO countries import commodity procurement docking meeting was held in the SCO demonstration zone located in Qingdao, Shandong. The event attracted about 400 domestic and foreign guests, including local government economic and trade officials from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries.
Zhang Yingying, Chairman of Qingdao Fulewei Machinery Technology Co., Ltd., deeply feels the driving effect of economic and trade cooperation in the SCO demonstration zone. We are an enterprise that produces plastic machinery and has actively embraced cross-border e-commerce in recent years. The increasing international economic and trade activities in the SCO demonstration zone have injected confidence and confidence into our company's exploration of overseas markets, "said Zhang Yingying.
In addition to comprehensive international exchange and cooperation platforms such as the Qingdao Summit of Multinational Corporation Leaders and the Shanghai Cooperation Demonstration Zone, Shandong has also achieved targeted exchange platforms such as the 7th China Central and Eastern European Countries Local Leaders Conference and the Shandong International Friendship City Cooperation and Exchange Week to achieve economic and trade connectivity, cultural exchange, and educational mutual learning with relevant countries.
Chen Baiwei, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee, said that this year is the first year of the "15th Five Year Plan". Shandong will adhere to the main goals of the "15th Five Year Plan", further deepen exchanges with surrounding cities, jointly build the "the Belt and Road", APEC members and other countries and regions, and create a wide range, multi-level and high-quality pattern of foreign exchanges.
Innovative institutional openness shapes new advantages for economic and trade cooperation
We have built a cooperation platform to promote institutional innovation in the fields of trade, investment, and finance, and now many cooperation projects have been implemented, "said Lin Changhua, Deputy Director of the SCO Demonstration Zone Management Committee. Previously, the SCO Demonstration Zone Management Committee jointly established the CIPS SCO Cross border Innovation Laboratory with the Qingdao Branch of the People's Bank of China and Cross border Interbank Payment Clearing Co., Ltd., to issue CIPS cross-border guarantees for demonstration zone enterprises. By formulating standards for interbank and interbank guarantee messages, they are used for financing guarantees in cross-border engineering contracting, cross-border goods trade, cross-border service trade and other scenarios, effectively promoting the development of cross-border RMB business among SCO countries.
Such institutional innovation in open fields is not uncommon in the SCO demonstration zone. Han Xingang, the full-time deputy director of the Reform Office of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee, said that the SCO Demonstration Zone has launched a total of 138 institutional innovation achievements, built an innovative collaborative system of "logistics capacity expansion, trade quality improvement, science and industry linkage, and cultural integration", and comprehensively demonstrated the significant results of the transition from "building platforms" to "using platforms".
Linyi City, the largest small commodity distribution base in the north, has listed the internationalization of Linyi Mall as a "key project" and actively promoted the "mall going global".
In order to transform the spontaneous exploration of enterprises into a systematic force for going global, Linyi has issued a mobilization order of "Hundred Regiments, Thousand Enterprises, Shopping Mall Going Global", set up a special fund of 80 million yuan, and launched 22 support measures. Sun Bao'an, the president of Linyi Wholesalers Association, introduced that in May this year, he led 50 companies to hold a high-quality product expo in Uzbekistan, and in July, he will organize 180 companies to go to Angola, an African country. Previously, when companies went global, they had to go it alone. Now, with government assistance, companies have a higher customer acquisition rate, "said Sun Bao'an.
The continuous deepening of institutional opening-up has greatly optimized the business environment, which has strengthened the confidence of many foreign-funded enterprises to invest in Shandong.
Asia Pacific Senbo (Shandong) Pulp and Paper Co., Ltd., located in Rizhao Economic and Technological Development Zone, Shandong Province, has orderly production in its factory building, with transport trucks coming in and out, creating a busy scene. This foreign-funded enterprise has increased its capital in Shandong more than 20 times in the past 20 years, with a cumulative investment of nearly 30 billion yuan.
The company's director and deputy general manager, Wang Weiguo, said, "Rizhao has unique geographical advantages and a favorable business environment. We have great confidence in the future development of the enterprise
Liu Xiaoning, director of the Institute of International Economics and Politics at the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, said that as a major economic and open province, Shandong has the ability and responsibility to "lead the way" in promoting institutional openness. Nowadays, more and more cities in Shandong are stepping onto the international stage through institutional opening up.
Building an international logistics corridor to accelerate linkage between land, sea, and domestic markets
At the Dongjia Railway Freight Center in Jinan, as the whistle sounded, a Shandong China Europe train slowly departed from the station. In the first four months of this year, Jinan China Europe Railway Express shipped a total of 439 trains, a year-on-year increase of 64.4%. The 'Steel Dragon' that sailed out from the land of Qilu has become a 'stable increment' for Shandong's opening-up to the outside world, galloping through the golden channel of Asia and Europe. The staff of the Market Operations Department of Shandong Qilu Eurasian Express Operation Co., Ltd. said that with the increase of routes and radiating countries, Shandong is building an international logistics corridor connecting Japan and South Korea to the east and Eurasia to the west.
As the only seaport in the Yellow River Basin, Shandong leverages the advantages of numerous ports and a well-developed sea rail intermodal transportation network to build a major corridor along the Yellow River, actively connecting various provinces in the Yellow River Basin, helping to reduce logistics costs and increase efficiency along the route, and striving to become an important node for smooth domestic and international dual circulation.
At Rizhao Port in Shandong Province, accompanied by the roar of trains, a train loaded with coal from Shanxi Province slowly entered along the railway. Every day, coal and other bulk goods from provinces along the Yellow River such as Shanxi and Shaanxi are loaded onto ships at Rizhao Port and transported to major power plants, steel mills, and key enterprises along the southeast coast. To facilitate the transportation of goods along the Yellow River provinces, we have moved the 'seaport' of Shandong ports to the 'doorstep' of enterprises in inland areas, "said Wang Wei, Chairman of Shandong Port Logistics Group. Currently, Shandong ports have laid out 56 inland ports in China and opened 108 sea rail intermodal trains.
The land sea linkage has achieved significant results, and Shandong continues to enrich the "capillaries" of logistics channels. Recently, a transport vehicle with a TIR sign was loaded with local building materials products from Linyi and was speeding towards Kazakhstan. Under the TIR system, it is possible to achieve one declaration, one vehicle to the end, and one certificate for direct transportation, realizing cross-border road transportation from door to door and point-to-point. ”Xian Youtao, General Manager of Shandong Linmanou International Logistics Co., Ltd., said.
At present, many places such as Jinan, Qingdao, and Linyi have launched TIR international road transportation, which not only improves cross-border logistics efficiency but also provides more international trade opportunities for enterprises. Xin Yang, Deputy Director of Jinan Customs, said that in the first quarter of this year, the number of TIR export trains from Shandong increased by 46%.
In recent years, in order to further promote the opening-up to a higher level, wider field, and better structure, Shandong has issued the "Implementation Opinions on Building a New High level Opening up Area", proposing to improve the high-level opening-up system and mechanism, comprehensively enhance the radiation and driving ability of international logistics channels, and gather global resource elements, consolidating and enhancing its strategic position in the overall national opening-up situation.
"Opening up is a distinctive symbol of Chinese path to modernization. Shandong has made remarkable achievements in stabilizing foreign trade, attracting foreign capital, promoting innovation and strengthening channels, which fully demonstrates the responsibility of a major economic province to 'pick the big beam'," said Hong Junjie, president of Shandong University of Finance and Economics.
