Yellow River Basin Pilot Free Trade Zone Alliance launched in Shandong

The Yellow River Basin Pilot Free Trade Zone Alliance was unveiled on Aug 23 in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, as part of Shandong's efforts to promote regional cooperation and coordinated development in the Yellow River Basin.

During the launch ceremony, the alliance issued service items for promoting enterprise development, a general mechanism for integrated administrative examination and approval services, a cooperative mechanism for integrated intellectual property protection and integrated logistics and transportation services.

Starting in Qinghai province, the 5,464-kilometer Yellow River, which is the second-longest river in China, runs through seven provinces and two autonomous regions: Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces, and the Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions.

The Yellow River basin is an important ecological barrier and is strategically significant for China's national development and modernization.

The alliance, initiated by Shandong, includes 12 free trade zone areas in Shandong, Henan, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces and 15 functional economic zones in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia.

Establishing the alliance and creating experimental fields for institutional innovation will inject new impetus into the construction of pilot free trade zones along the Yellow River and drive the formation of a large integrated market, according to Shandong officials.

The alliance also plans to promote the connectivity of major infrastructure development and open platforms in an orderly manner, gradually build large-scale and distinctive cross-regional industrial clusters, and explore new ways for national experimentation, opening-up, and building a new development pattern.

According to the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, the alliance is part of Shandong's efforts to implement the national strategy for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.

Shandong is the only coastal province among the nine provinces and regions in the Yellow River Basin. The Yellow River empties into the Bohai Sea in Dongying city, Shandong.

Shandong has a sea area of 159,500 square kilometers, which is equivalent to its land area, and it has a coastline of one-sixth of the country's total.

Shandong is also the only province in the Yellow River Basin with seaport resources. It boasts the most convenient passage to the sea and serves as the bridgehead of the new Eurasian Land Bridge. It has three large ports with a throughput of over 400 million metric tons, which is crucial in promoting land-sea cooperation and internal and external communication.