Adjacent to the Yellow and Bohai Sea to the east and to the hinterland of the Central Plains to the west, Shandong, a major economic province, is not only an open gateway to the Yellow River Basin, but also an important transportation hub along the "Belt and Road". In recent years, Shandong has accelerated the construction of a land-sea open-up pattern that faces Japan and South Korea and connects the “Belt and Road”. In the first 10 months of this year, the total value of Shandong's foreign trade imports and exports reached 2.39 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.0%, which was 13.8 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of national foreign trade. Among them, the total value of imports and exports to countries along the “Belt and Road” reached 748.37 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42%, and new results were achieved in the high-quality development of foreign trade.
Continue to expand the "Belt and Road" circle of friends:
On November 29, the "Qilu" Euro-Asia train carrying 50 trucks of cold chain food departed from Dongjiazhen Station in Jinan and bound for Moscow, Russia. This is a microcosm of Shandong's creation of international logistics channels based on its location advantages. At present, the Eurasian train from Shandong can directly reach 52 cities in 22 countries along the “Belt and Road” route. From January to October this year, the Shandong "Qilu" Eurasian train operated a total of 1,456, and the number of operations increased by 14.9% over the same period last year.
With the help of the trains that travel between the Eurasian continent, many enterprises in Shandong have formed a virtuous industrial cycle with countries along the “Belt and Road”. Shandong Anhe International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. Deputy General Manager Wang Shu said that Shandong enterprises export textile machines to Uzbekistan through the Eurasian train. The local textile mills use these equipment to process cotton yarn, and the processed cotton yarn is transported on the return train. Back to Shandong. This not only met the production needs of foreign factories, Shandong also obtained high-quality cotton yarn products from Central Asia, achieving a win-win situation.
Merchants on the cloud, embrace the world:
At the end of October, a "Germany-Shandong Industrial Cooperation and Exchange Conference" opened in Jinan. Guests from German and Shandong companies, business associations and related departments gathered through the cloud to start online negotiations. In the exchange meeting, a total of 10 companies reached a consensus and formed 6 strategic cooperation agreements.
Today, this online "cloud investment" and "cloud signing" model has become the "new normal" for Shandong's foreign investment projects in the past two years. "In 2020, in the face of the adverse impact of the inability to carry out on-site economic and trade negotiations caused by the epidemic, Shandong has actively promoted the transfer of investment from offline to online and achieved good results." said Lu Wei, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce. Video-focused negotiation and signing activities of key foreign investment projects were held for the first time. More than 200 foreign investment projects were signed with a total investment of more than 30 billion U.S. dollars.
In addition to "cloud investment", Shandong is also actively taking advantage of offline promotion opportunities to embrace the world stage. At the 4th China International Import Expo, which was held shortly after its closing, the Shandong Province trading delegation had more than 6,000 participating units, with a cumulative turnover of more than US$6 billion, an increase of more than 20% over the previous session.
Actively expanding new channels for foreign exchanges, Shandong has reaped fruitful results in the “Belt and Road” cooperation. From January to September this year, Shandong's actual use of foreign capital reached 16.26 billion US dollars, an increase of 50.9% year-on-year, an increase of 25.7 percentage points higher than that of the country.
Seize the opportunity to cultivate overseas:
In addition to "bringing in", Shandong has also adopted policy support to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in "going out". In Linyi, Shandong, Linyi Mall has established 9 overseas malls and overseas warehouses in Hungary, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other countries and regions by actively deploying overseas Linyi Mall, logistics and storage centers, and marketing service agencies, forming a stable international market. Sales channels.
"Our company used to only do the domestic market. With the introduction of favorable policies such as market procurement and trade methods, now the company's export products account for 1/3 of the total output." Zhang Jie, general manager of Linyi Youyou Household Products Co., Ltd. told reporters, Linyi Mall Many merchants focusing on domestic sales have begun bold attempts to open up overseas markets.
The favorable effects of policy-oriented "going out" of enterprises are "blooming" in the land of Qilu. On November 12, the SCO Demonstration Zone Certificate of Origin Examination and Signing Center was officially opened in Qingdao, Shandong Province. The center is characterized by serving the economic and trade cooperation of SCO member states, allowing eligible Chinese goods to enjoy tariff preferences when they are exported.
"Actively integrating into the construction of the'Belt and Road' has provided new ideas for Shandong's foreign trade development and opened up new markets." said Zheng Shilin, a researcher at the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Post time: Dec-06-2021