Jinan free trade area sees promising development

The newly-built Jinan free trade area has made significant progress in attracting talents and foreign projects and optimizing its business environment since it opened in August, local officials said.

Official data show that a total of 2,400 companies have been registered at the Jinan Area of the China (Shandong) Free Trade Zone (FTZ), more than the Qingdao and Yantai free trade areas.

The area also attracted 12 large-scale projects with a total investment of 25.3 billion yuan ($3.61 billion), 53 fund companies with a management scale of 296 billion yuan, and 12 banks.

Shandong's first global trading port exhibition center will begin operating in the Jinan free trade area on Jan 1, 2020.

The center will accommodate 15 pavilions displaying more than 2,500 overseas goods from Britain, French, Belgium and other countries.

Covering an area of 37.99 square kilometers, the Jinan Area of Shandong FTZ was launched on Aug 31 and is striving to develop emerging industries including artificial intelligence, industrial finance, healthcare, cultural tourism, and information technology.

Official statistics show that in the first 10 months of 2019, Jinan's import and export growth rate was 11.7 percentage points higher than that of the country as a whole and 5.9 percentage points higher than that of the province.