Zhang Xinzhu's Article in People's Daily: Building SCODA into a Hub for Opening-up
On November 15, the People's Daily published a signed article by Zhang Xinzhu, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Secretary of the CPC Working Committee of SCODA, entitled Building SCODA into a Hub for Opening-up. The full article is as follows:
In 2018, President Xi Jinping announced at the 18th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that "The Chinese government supports building a demonstration area in Qingdao for local economic and trade cooperation between China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)". In recent years, the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (hereinafter referred to as SCODA) focused on building the "four centers" of international logistics, modern trade, two-way investment, and commercial, tourism and cultural exchange, and the China-SCO Institute of Economy and Trade. It has built platforms, created models, gathered industries, and strengthened entities, achieving remarkable results. Looking into the future, SCODA is forging ahead toward the goal of building a new platform for Belt and Road international cooperation.
Create a source of institutional innovation Compared with the opening-up featuring commodity and factor flow, institutional opening-up stands at a higher level, and is an inevitable trend to achieve high-level opening-up. Since the inauguration of SCODA, we have prioritized institutional innovation, and created more than 80 institutions such as the "Credit SCO", forming policy and institutional innovation achievements of "five conveniences". We established the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Comprehensive Service Platform, and strive to solve the pain points and bottlenecks encountered by enterprises in economic, trade, and investment cooperation, to continuously improve trade and investment facilitation. Practice in the past has proven that steadily expanding institutional opening-up is conducive to extending and upgrading trade cooperation, thus improving the level of trade cooperation.
Create a new hub for economic and trade cooperation. Infrastructure connectivity is the cornerstone of development. Leveraging the SCO International Hub Port and other infrastructure, we have given full play to the advantage of the coordinated seaport, land port, airport, and railway, established the efficient and convenient connectivity layout, creating the processing and manufacturing center, logistics distribution center and product distribution center facing Northeast Asia. Currently, the SCO International Hub Port has been successfully approved by the United Nations with the international port code. SCODA has opened 21 international freight train routes, and established the China-Europe Express (Qilu) Overseas Assembly Center at Almaty, Kazakhstan. We have integrated the competitive resources of Shandong and Xinjiang to build SCODA Xinjiang Branch Park. Further improving infrastructure connectivity enables better sharing market opportunities and promotes economic growth.
Facilitate the safety and stability of industrial and supply chains. Industrial and supply chains are integral forms of the modern economy, and pose a significant influence on the operation of the modern economic system. In a bid to better safeguard the stable industrial and supply chains of SCO countries, we organized the SCO Industrial and Supply Chains Forum, and initiated the establishment of the China-SCO Industrial Park Alliance to promote information sharing, logistics connectivity, and project collaboration. Meanwhile, we established the SCO Industrial Internet Characteristic Pioneering Area, and created more than 20 export-oriented industrial clusters, such as the Haier COSMOPlat Industrial Internet Ecological Park. We are aware that further enhancing the resilience and safety of industrial and supply chains serves the common interests of various countries.
Cultivate high-quality professionals. Close economic and trade cooperation is inseparable from talent support. Setting up the China-SCO Institute of Economy and Trade is a practical measure to promote economic cooperation among SCO member states. Focusing on "cultivating talent" for multilateral economic and trade cooperation, we actively carried out foreign aid training and economic and trade training in the model of "demand+training+practice". So far, we have cumulatively opened over 180 training sessions, attracting 13,800 trainees from SCO countries and countries engaging in the Belt and Road development. With more and more innovation-oriented economic and trade talents who are familiar with the conditions of various countries and international rules, the exchanges and cooperation among SCO member states will become further deepened and more pragmatic.
Open cooperation is the key driving force enhancing the vitality of international economy and trade, as well as the demand of the times for further progress of human society. Forging ahead on the new journey, we will continue to prioritize both the hard connectivity of the economic and trade cooperation platform and the soft connectivity of the economic and trade cooperation model. We will strive to build SCODA into a pilot area for institutional innovation in two-way local investment and trade among SCO countries, a gathering place for entrepreneurship and business development, and a pioneering area for local economic and trade cooperation along the Belt and Road, deliver substantial and pragmatic results, and improve the reputation and recognition of SCODA, thus building a new hub for opening up in the new era.