SCODA Signed Memorandum of Cooperation with the Small and Medium Enterprises Industrial Park of Samarkand
On December 13, at the Shandong · China-Samarkand · Uzbekistan Cooperation Seminar held in Jinan, SCODA signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Small and Medium Enterprises Industrial Park of Samarkand.
According to the memorandum, SCODA and the Small and Medium Enterprises Industrial Park of Samarkand will give full play to their respective advantages, deepen cooperation in logistics and warehousing, import and export, two-way investment and other fields, jointly hold or organize enterprises to participate in various economic and trade activities between China and Uzbekistan, and promote the interaction and coupling of resources and elements between the two sides, to achieve win-win development.
Since its inauguration, SCODA has actively promoted practical cooperation with Uzbekistan in various fields. SCODA has launched point-to-point train services to Tashkent, Samarkand, and other cities, signed the SCODA-Urumqi-Samarkand international route, and accelerated the construction of a convenient and efficient cross-border transport network. The Qingdao Branch of the Uzbek National Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange has been implemented, to create a cross-border transaction platform integrating comprehensive services of export product transaction, technology transfer, and product information release, promoting two-way economic and trade exchanges. In a bid to solve the pain points and bottlenecks in economic and trade exchanges, SCODA introduced 82 institutional innovation cases and promoted the Chinese and Uzbekistani customs to sign AEO (Authorised Economic Operators) mutual recognition agreements, which shortened the customs clearance time of cargo for AEO enterprises and lowered their trading costs of warehousing and logistics. The Uzbekistan Culture Exhibition Area was set up at the Qingdao · SCODA Pearl International Expo Center. It aims to display and sell goods with Uzbekistani characteristics, demonstrate life scenarios and unique elements of history, art, and folk culture, and build a platform for the economic and trade exchanges and people-to-people interaction between the two countries. In September 2023, during the Shandong delegation's visit to Uzbekistan, SCODA signed cooperation agreements with several enterprises and institutions including the Uzbekistan Textile and Garment Industry Association and the Tashkent Institute of Textile and Light Industry. SCODA promoted TELD New Energy Co., Ltd. to sign a cooperation agreement on planning and building a charging network with the City Government of Tashkent.
"We will continue to strengthen the attributes as public goods, explore new paths and new mechanisms of economic and trade exchanges and people-to-people communication with Uzbekistan, leverage the platform roles of the SCO Economic and Trade Comprehensive Service Platform, SCO International Hub Port, SCO Capital Port and 'Silk Road E-Commerce' Comprehensive Service Base, further improve the two-way trade and investment facilitation, deliver more pragmatic cooperation results, and provide scenarios, models, and examples for local economic and trade cooperation within international multilateral and bilateral frameworks," said Lin Changhua, Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of SCODA.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Industrial Park of Samarkand joining the "SCO international circle of friends" represents the latest achievement of SCODA's exploration of the local cooperation mechanism featuring "collaboration between two industrial parks and two zones". Up till now, SCODA has established partnerships with 57 industrial parks and institutions in 22 SCO countries, including the China-Belarus Industrial Park, Uzbekistan Pengsheng Industrial Park, and Alabuga Special Economic Zone of Russia. It has set up liaison offices and international investment service centers in and attracted such offices and centers of some partner industrial parks, to promote industrial cooperation projects, and build an all-round and three-dimensional overseas industrial parks cooperation network featuring "interaction between two industrial parks".