Qingdao to further cooperation with SCO countries

The Qingdao municipal government recently issued "Action Plan on Qingdao's Deep Promotion of Regional Cooperation and Exchange with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States", which aims to reach new heights in opening up and expanding exchanges and cooperation with SCO members in the economy, trade, finance, tourism, science and technology, agriculture, humanities and intellectual forces. 

Economic and trade cooperation is the top priority between Qingdao and SCO countries. According to the plan, Qingdao will accelerate the construction of the China-SCO regional economic and trade cooperation demonstration area, thus enhancing the level of local economic and trade cooperation with SCO countries in an all-round way.

A batch of key projects in logistics, trade, processing, finance and business services will be carried out in the demonstration zone, while a set of projects, bases and parks will be coordinated in SCO countries. 

The city is determined to achieve the "four doubles" development goal by 2022. It means the volume of annual import and export trade with SCO countries will add up to about 80 billion yuan ($11.6 billion), the cumulative investment in two-way cooperation will reach about 3.5 billion yuan, the turnover of foreign engineering contracting will come in at about 6 billion yuan, and the scale of two-way labor cooperation will reach more than 3,000 people. All these items are going to double the scale they were in 2017. 

Meanwhile, the city will speed up the establishment of an international multimodal transport and trade corridor supported by China-Europe freight trains, opening international railway logistics routes from Qingdao to Central Asia and Europe. 

After introducing and gathering international trade platforms, regional settlement centers, service outsourcing agencies, international financial institutions and intermediaries from SCO countries, Qingdao will create a comprehensive and modern market trade center for those countries. 

The city will work hard to extend international capacity cooperation with SCO countries in home appliances and electronics, textiles and clothing, rubber tires, machinery manufacturing, modern agriculture, engineering construction and other advantage industries. 

The city also plans to develop cross-border regional economic cooperation for SCO countries, and accelerate the establishment of a dual-park interactive cooperation model. 

Apart from the SCO local economic, trade exchange and cooperation platform, the SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation (Qingdao) Forum and the SCO International Fair for Investment and Trade will be on regular schedules. 

Moreover, Qingdao still needs to improve the mechanism of local economic and trade cooperation of SCO countries. Led by the demonstration area of China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation with in-depth integration of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Qingdao is about to become a model city for BRI local economic and trade cooperation. 

When it comes to finance, the city will actively innovate a financial development model, promote strategic cooperation with financial institutions, and build Qingdao into a wealth management center gathering these financial institutions for SCO members, so that Qingdao can set up an SCO local economic and trade cooperation fund. 

In terms of tourism, the city will vigorously develop characteristic tourism to shape Qingdao into a tourism brand city facing SCO countries. Through cooperation with SCO members in characteristic tourism products and classic tourist routes, a city image highlighting the elements of SCO can be popularized. 

In science and technology, the city will strive to explore and exploit its role as the carrier of scientific and technological innovation, and build an SCO science and technology cooperation platform to add a new dimension to the SCO. 

Regarding modern agriculture, the city will energetically strengthen industry and trade cooperation, enhance the export of agricultural products, machinery and equipment to the SCO countries, and discuss the construction of an SCO farm and sideline products industrial park. 

In the humanities, the city will advocate people-to-people exchanges and joint efforts in culture, education, sports, medical care, law, youth, women and children, folk commerce and other cultural fields. 

Concerning intellectual forces, the city vigorously supports talent introduction and will build a cooperation platform as an SCO talent pool, strengthening development and collaboration in human resources for foreign aid with the SCO states.

Leaders attending the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit pose for a group photo ahead of a banquet in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, June 9, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

Leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states issued a declaration on June 10 at annual summit held in China's coastal city of Qingdao. [Photo/VCG]