SCODA: Striving to Build the New Platform for Belt and Road International Cooperation
By the Yellow Sea and the Jiaozhou Bay. Driving by the City Hall of Qingdao and go northwest for about 68 km, you will arrive at the Multimodal Transport Center of SCODA. Cargoes go in and out of non-stop, trains shuttle back and forth, and "full load" is the vivid reflection of the China-Europe freight train.
The report of the 20th CPC National Congress pointed out that the Chinese modernization takes the road of peaceful development. It has been five years since China announced the construction of SCODA in Qingdao in June 2018. For the past five years, SCODA has continuously strengthened its attributes as an international public product, to build platforms, link resources and provide solutions. Leveraging the advantages of China's ultra-large market and giving full play to the effect of the coordinated domestic and international dual circulation, SCODA strives to build a new platform for Belt and Road international cooperation, and gradually become a hub where international industrial, supply, trade and value chains converge. Over the past five years, SCODA has strongly boosted SCO local economic and trade cooperation, connecting resources, forging complementary advantages, mutual benefit and win-win results, and delivering a vivid answer to the high-level opening-up and high-quality development.
Building Broad Platforms, Fully Connecting "SCO Resources"
Not long ago, the Alhaji Mohammed Naz Sadat Company of Afghanistan reached a cooperation agreement with SCO Nut Trading Center through the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Comprehensive Service Platform for Local Economic and Trade Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as the "SCO Comprehensive Service Platform"). A batch of Afghan pine nuts took just 15 days from customs declaration and commodity inspection to taking a cargo charter flight to China.
The Alhaj Mohammed Naz Sadat Company is a well-known pine nut trader in Afghanistan, 70% of whose products are exported to the Chinese market. In the past, the company could only find Chinese customers through exhibitions, intermediaries and other channels. And it also required visits to the corresponding authorities one by one to coordinate the procedures of customs declaration, logistics and others, which was costly and time-consuming. In terms of cargo transportation, in the past, Afghan pine nuts were shipped to China by sea, or by air via Dubai, Uzbekistan and other transits, which took up to 45 days in total.
"After the release of the demand on the SCO Comprehensive Service Platform, we not only found customers directly, but also completed the procedures of cargo customs declaration, commodity inspection, transportation and insurance in one stop, and shipped to China in only 15 days through the direct cargo charter flight recommended by the 'whole chain logistics' section." Asala, Chairman of the company, said that the trade facilitation services provided by the SCO Comprehensive Service Platform have strengthened the enterprise's confidence in exploring the Chinese market.
The SCO Comprehensive Service Platform mentioned by Asala is the first one-stop public service platform for SCO local economic and trade innovatively launched by SCODA. Leveraging China's international trade "Single Window", it provides users with one-stop comprehensive services of the whole cycle, all factors and all chains integrating "trade + customs clearance + logistics + finance".
"The version 1.0 of the platform has 3 functional systems of comprehensive information display, comprehensive function application, and comprehensive data release, 8 application modules, and 73 sub-functions." Chi Yongxin, Director of Enterprise Service Department I of the Administrative Committee of SCODA, introduced that with the iterative upgrading of the platform, version 2.0 was officially launched in June. The new version focuses on the practical demands of SCO countries, such as exports promotion, local currency settlement, barter trade, and mutual recognition of supervision. It has developed service functions such as cross-border payment and settlement, cross-border new barter trade, aviation logistics, and taxpayer supply chain information inquiry. At present, the platform has attracted more than 5,000 domestic and foreign enterprises online, covering 27 industries, with more than 6,000 customs declarations, and a customs declaration amount of more than 20 billion yuan completed.
SCODA focuses on studying the pain points of international economic and trade cooperation, and has successively launched major supporting platforms such as Qingdao · SCODA Pearl International Expo Center, SCO Comprehensive Service Platform, Qingdao International Energy Exchange, and SCO International Hub Port.
In September 2022, Qingdao · SCODA Pearl International Expo Center opened, becoming the first cultural experience base of the SCO countries in China. Entering the Kyrgyzstan cultural elements exhibition area, you will find buildings of Bishkek characteristics in local folk patterns, displaying distinct exotic flavor. On the display cases, Kyrgyzstan's "national treasure" honey, felt slippers, dairy products, handmade bags and other special products are neatly arranged to attract tourists to enjoy and buy.
"The SCO Expo held in this June attracted 330 companies and institutions from 34 countries and regions, showcasing more than 10,000 kinds of special products of SCO countries, and reached a purchase turnover of about 1 billion yuan and an intended transaction volume of nearly 4 billion yuan. It has become a major stage for domestic enterprises to enter SCO countries and enterprises from SCO countries to access the Chinese market." said Zhang Dong, Member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of SCODA.
Focusing on "cultivating talents" for SCO countries and "building a platform" for multilateral economic and trade cooperation, the China-SCO Institute of Economy and Trade was inaugurated in Qingdao in January 2022. Since its inauguration, 149 sessions of economic and trade training have been conducted, attracting 11,800 participants from 43 SCO countries and countries along the Belt and Road to participate in the training.
Innovating Models First, Fully Creating "SCO Model"
"From consultation to application, from notarization to agency certification, it took just one offline visit to solve all problems!" Recently, a Chinese-funded enterprise specializing in science and technology promotion and application services in SCODA planned to set up a branch in Belarus, but Mr. Wang, legal person of the company, was unable to visit Belarus to open an account for the time being due to personal reasons. Faced with the "urgent demand", Mr. Wang logged in to the SCO "Law and Intelligence Valley" foreign-related legal service big data platform, hoping to solve the problem through legal means. Upon learning Mr. Wang's demands in detail, the staff of SCO "Law and Intelligence Valley" contacted SCO Notary Service Center and suggested a professional solution. Through previous thorough communication, Mr. Wang took the relevant materials to the SCO Notary Service Center and solved all the problems in one-stop.
Fan Shaoheng, Deputy Director of Comprehensive Department II of the Administrative Committee of the SCODA, said that the SCO "Law and Intelligence Valley" adopts the concept of integrated online and offline operation, and builds a big data platform for foreign-related legal services online, providing one-stop and all-round legal services for even thousands of registered users. The SCO "Law and Intelligence Valley" one-stop legal service platform is built offline, providing legal advice, lawyer representation, international arbitration, foreign-related notarization and other services for enterprises and individuals.
"Due to different credit investigation systems and standards in various countries, enterprises need to spend a significant amount of time and labor costs to collect and verify customer credit information before cooperating with foreign customers, and it is also difficult for domestic enterprises to earn the trust of foreign customers with their credit qualification." Qingdao Kelisheng Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is an export trading company. Robin Patlaken, Logistics Manager of the company, said that SCODA innovatively set up the "Credit SCO" platform, which makes up for the shortcomings of the cross-border credit information system, and enables companies to conveniently and efficiently query customer information, providing credit support for successful cooperation.
"Credit SCO" is the first cross-border credit service platform between China and SCO countries. It is committed to building the connectivity of cross-border credit investigation data and mutual recognition of credit standards among SCO countries. Based on the global cross-border credit investigation database, the report dimension covers more than 50 sub-dimensions such as basic registration information, executive association, judicial information, and business status of enterprises. "At present, more than 40,000 enterprises have registered and used the platform, collecting more than 1 billion pieces of data from 210 million enterprises in China (including individual industrial and commercial entities) and 57 million enterprises in 47 countries and regions overseas, providing more than 200,000 inquiry services for domestic and overseas enterprises, and effectively solving problems in market expansion and risk management." said Chi Yongxin.
SCODA has continuously explored and innovated supply models and cooperation plans, and launched a total of 60 institutional innovation cases in five aspects: facilitation of logistics and transportation, facilitation of trade development, facilitation of investment cooperation, facilitation of people-to-people exchanges, and optimization of the business environment, providing effective and systematic solutions for the economic and trade cooperation.
In addition, SCODA further deepens the new mode of international logistics cooperation, innovates the implementation of the digital "one bill system", integrates the information of enterprises, customs, banks, insurance companies and other parties, solves the problem of insufficient credit for financing in railway documents between departments and industries, and realizes the online circulation, financing and payment of freight documents in international railway multimodal transport. It also deepens the new mode of modern trade cooperation, launches the "SCO · Bank Customs Pass", invests 50 million yuan to set up a tariff risk compensation fund, and pays tariff guarantee for small and medium-sized enterprises with good credit. SCODA goes on to issue the SCO Trade Index, implement the "one bill for two declarations" of customs declarations between China and Russia, and promote AEO mutual recognition with the Customs of Uzbekistan.
Coordinating and Collaborating with the Dual Circulation, Fully Pooling "SCO Forces"
Recently, a return trip of the China-Europe freight train (Qilu) loaded with wheat bran granules arrived at the multimodal transport center of SCODA. The return train departed from Kustanai in Kazakhstan, entered through Alashankou port, and took 13 days to reach Qingdao for sales in the Chinese market. Soon after, a cold chain express special train of the China-Europe freight train (Qilu) loaded with frozen yellow peach cubes, vegetables and other products with a value of about 13 million yuan set off from the multimodal transport center of SCODA to Moscow, the capital of Russia.
The China-Europe freight train, full of high-quality goods from SCO countries, is a testament to the smooth flow of logistics and trade between SCO countries promoted by SCODA. Up to now, SCODA has opened 31 international and domestic train routes, connecting 54 cities in 23 SCO countries and countries along the Belt and Road, building a multimodal logistics corridor connecting Japan and South Korea in the east, Mongolia and Russia in the north, ASEAN in the south, and SCO countries and countries along the Belt and Road in the west, and speeding up to become a gateway for SCO countries to access the Asia-Pacific market.
"We use the SCO Comprehensive Service Platform as a driver to integrate market resources in the provincial, domestic and international circles. Through policy sharing, resource complementarity and industrial interconnection, we can help to build a unified domestic market and promote the domestic and international dual circulation." Zhang Dong introduced that SCODA has joined hands with eight economic development zones in the province to build a collaborative innovation zone; SCODA has also continuously strengthened exchanges and cooperation with the Yangtze River Delta and other regions to build a cooperation pattern "linking the Yangtze River Delta and coordinating with the Greater Bay Area".
At the international level, SCODA has established cooperation relations with 51 industrial parks and institutions in 22 SCO countries, opening up the upstream and downstream chains through the implementation of industrial projects, promoting the complementarity of industrial advantages among SCO countries, and providing scenarios, models and examples for local economic and trade cooperation within the international multilateral and bilateral framework.
"In order to overcome the difficulties of cross-border settlement, slow customs clearance and poor tax compliance in cross-border e-commerce cooperation among SCO countries, we are making every effort to build a comprehensive service base for 'Silk Road e-commerce'." Zhang Dong said that the "Silk Road E-Commerce" Comprehensive Service Base would facilitate "buying and selling globally" by building an integrated international logistics service network of sea, land, air and rail transport.
"In the future, following the instructions of the 20th CPC National Congress, we will further strengthen the attribute of SCODA as an international public product, prioritize both the "hard connectivity" of the economic and trade cooperation platform and the "soft connectivity" of the economic and trade demonstration model, and constantly release its value as a platform. Through diversified, multi-dimensional interaction and cooperation in various fields, we will deliver substantial and pragmatic results, and improve the reputation and recognition of the SCODA." said Zhang Xinzhu, Member of the Standing Committee of CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of SCODA.