SCO and the “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs Recruits Customers Online to Seek Central-local Cooperation in Qingdao and Implement Win-win National Strategy
On the afternoon of June 29, the online press conference for investment attraction of the SCO and the “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs was held in Qingdao. Wang Qingxian, member of the Standing Committee of CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and Secretary of CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee, Meng Fanli, Deputy Secretary of CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Mayor of Qingdao, Mr. Sherali Jonon, Deputy Secretary-general of the SCO, Sergey Kanavskiy, Secretary-general of the SCO Business Council, and heads from more than 30 central enterprises, including China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, State Development & Investment Corporation, and China Poly Group Corporation Limited, gathered online to discuss the “Belt and Road” Initiative.
Ten projects, with a total investment of approximately 42.7 billion yuan, were signed on site, mainly focusing on the fields of infrastructure construction, and headquarters economy. At the conference, Qingdao also announced 20 projects with a total investment of 80 billion yuan, to seek opportunities for cooperation with central enterprises.
Contracted projects for investment attraction of central-local cooperation along the “Belt and Road”:
SCO Finance Building project;
The SCO Plaza Area project;
Xinhong Medical Industry Investment project;
Shoucheng Holdings Park Infrastructure Cooperation project;
City-industry Development project in the south of Huanxiu Lake;
Saihe Industrial Information Technology project;
China MCC17 Group Regional Headquarters project;
Modern medical Logistics Industrial Park project;
Xiushui River City-industry Integration project;
Pingdu New Economy Industrial City project.
Meanwhile, on the official website of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, Qingdao published an investment attraction program for the SCO and the "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs, and directly released investment attraction projects in the “supreme headquarters” of central enterprises. Leveraging the platform of the SASAC, this was a targeted effort towards clear-cut goals.
Next, the International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs will also establish a policy system to support international cooperation under the “Belt and Road” Initiative, introduce resources from central enterprises to accelerate the construction of infrastructure in the SCODA, build a center for information exchange and cooperative trading between central enterprises and SCO countries, and create a base for central enterprises to display and promote the development of industrial clusters, thus forming a normalized matchmaking mechanism with the chambers of commerce and associations of SCO countries.
Why should we focus on the SCO countries along the “Belt and Road”? This is because that the areas along the “Belt and Road” are the regions with both the fastest growth in the import and export area with Qingdao and even the whole China and of the greatest potential. Qingdao’s exports to ASEAN countries increased by 40.2% in 2019, and imports from and exports to countries along the “Belt and Road” increased by 30.0%. In the first quarter of 2020, Qingdao’s import and export volume with ASEAN countries and the countries along the “Belt and Road” increased by 32.7% and 19.3% respectively.
Why do all the 30 central enterprises have confidence in Qingdao? Under the impact of the epidemic, the pace of markets, including that of central enterprises, has been disrupted; the global flow of elements has been blocked; and the urgent need for economic recovery has also placed more hopes on the Qingdao China-SCO Countries Cooperation Hub. Boasting the advantages of opening-up and the scale of a modern international metropolis, Qingdao is also an international hub to allocate global resources. Sino-Germany, Sino-Japan and Sino-Korea “Cooperation Hubs” have been opened to the public. Central enterprises have advantages in terms of talents, information, technologies, capital and other elements, as well as in the practice of gaining a foothold in international markets and dispatching global resources. When these advantages are combined in the SCODA - a frontier platform of opening-up, a new pattern of open development will be shaped.
From the perspective of orientation, the International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs aims to create an information exchange and cooperative trading center for central enterprises that open up to SCO countries and the countries along the “Belt and Road”, as well as a base for central enterprises to display and promote the development of industrial clusters, and to innovate a new pattern of central-local cooperation and development. As such, the International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs should bear the comprehensive functions of bilateral and multilateral exhibitions, communications and business discussions, centralized display of advantageous projects, and transnational investment, which are closely tied to Qingdao’s city orientation.
From the perspective of China’s opening-up pattern, Qingdao has a crucial historical mission - to become a bridge tower in Shandong, a new highland for opening up to the outside world, in a bid to form benign internal interaction with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yellow River Basin, and the three provinces of Northeast China while connecting to Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea externally, and strive to build a new important strategic fulcrum for China’s opening-up in the north of the Yangtze River. Today, with the presence of a fulcrum for opening-up of the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta in the eastern coastal areas, the North China does need such a new strategic fulcrum for coordinated national and regional development and wider opening-up.
However, central enterprises are not only participants in market competition, but also executors of national strategies. In terms of whether market economy or great national missions, Qingdao and central enterprises have a solid foundation for cooperation.
A range of national strategies, including the establishment of a new platform for global cooperation under the “Belt and Road” Initiative and the Qingdao Area of Shandong Free Trade Zone, and the high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, have put Qingdao at the forefront of China’s “opening up” development. When you enter the Qingdao China-SCO Countries Cooperation Hub, you are not only setting foot on Qingdao, but also walking into Jiaodong Peninsula and Shandong. You’ll step on not only Qingdao’s 12,000 km2 land, but also the 50,000 km2 Jiaodong Peninsula, and 157,000 km2 Shandong. You’ll face not only Qingdao’s ten-million population, but also a population exceeding 30 million or even one hundred million. Going further, we’ll reach the vast market of the Yellow River Basin, the whole China and even all the countries along the “Belt and Road”.
Qingdao is focusing on “two-way opening-up”, which means that it is opening up to both the international and domestic markets. Apart from export openness for domestic enterprises to go global to meet external demands, it should integrate the import openness of high-quality resources from international market based on the needs of domestic market. The openness not only supports Chinese enterprises to go overseas and expand the market to earn profits, but also facilitates the entry of foreign resources into the Chinese market to meet domestic demand.
The central enterprises with tremendous strength and rich experience in global operation, and Qingdao, which shoulders important national missions and is thriving with openness and vigor, are “predestined partners” in promoting international logistics, modern trade, bilateral investment, commerce, tourism and cultural exchanges, and maritime cooperation. Relying on its openness, Qingdao will provide central enterprises with a platform that integrates exhibition, promotion, roadshow, contact, and transaction functions, and offer a wide array of supporting services such as law, audit, accounting, visa, and living necessities, to promote interactive coupling of resource elements via the platform in an effort to double their value.
Actually, in the four-season trip of Qingdao tailored for central enterprises in 2019, many contracted projects were directly tied to the “Belt and Road” Initiative. For example, the Huarong and Guangde Cold Chain Trade and Finance Industrial Park project aimed to take the transportation advantages of the SCODA and develop trade with Russia and other countries along the “Belt and Road”; Qingdao Branch of China Machinery Industry Construction Group settled in Jiaozhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, with a view to bringing high-end equipment manufacturing industry, new energy industry, and high-quality medical and educational resources to Qingdao.
In response to the International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs that is established for normalized cooperation and exchanges, Qingdao will take reciprocal action.
Meng Qingsheng, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of the SCODA, told Tao Jun that the SCODA would build a new platform for central enterprises to support the construction of the SCODA, and for interaction and exchanges between central enterprises and SCO countries and the countries along the “Belt and Road”. This platform will maximize the advantages of central enterprises in talents, capital, expertise, technologies, information and other aspects to establish and improve a policy system to support international cooperation under the “Belt and Road” Initiative, and build a center for information exchange and cooperative trading between central enterprises and SCO countries and the countries along the “Belt and Road”, and a base for central enterprises to display and promote the development of industrial clusters, thus forming a normalized matchmaking mechanism with the business industries of SCO countries and the countries along the “Belt and Road”, and shaping the experience of international cooperation that can be replicated and promoted.
Qingdao’s construction of the SCO and the "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Hub for Central SOEs is an innovation in the model of central-local cooperation that is required for the establishment of a new development pattern of domestic and international dual circulation. The International Business Club for Central SOEs will transform Qingdao’s general trend of opening-up and other national strategies into a driving force for central enterprises to achieve market value and accomplish national mission, and a new momentum for Qingdao to achieve high-quality development, so that the advantages of Qingdao and central enterprises can be transformed into their impetus for development in the process of implementing national strategies via central-local cooperation based on mutual benefit and win-win outcome, and they can jointly shoulder important national missions.