SCO demonstration area offers opportunities for win-win cooperation

QINGDAO -- Five years on, the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA) in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao has grown into a new platform for international cooperation.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) demonstration area has sped up building a massive logistics passage to facilitate multilateral economic and trade cooperation and safeguard the stability of the industrial and supply chains in the region.

"We are striving to build the area into a gateway to the Asia Pacific for the SCO countries," said Zang Yuanqi, an official with the SCODA's management committee.

Apart from sea, air, and road transport, the area operates 31 international freight train routes, reaching 54 cities in 23 countries, including the SCO countries and those along the Belt and Road.

The demonstration area has set up a comprehensive platform to offer one-stop services covering trade, customs clearance, logistics, and finance, said Liu Bing, head of the service platform operator.

Nearly 5,000 enterprises, 731 suppliers, and 191 purchasers have registered on the platform, helping guarantee the stability of the industrial and supply chains in the SCO countries and those along the Belt and Road.

Fakhriddin Boboev, chairman of Uzbekistan's national leather industry association, Uzcharmsanoat, said economic and trade cooperation could become more efficient and economical with the service platform.

The service platform will cooperate closer with Uzbekistan in the future, helping the two countries achieve better economic and trade growth, said Fakhriddin Boboev.

The demonstration area has also introduced or nurtured 10 trading platforms to link more than 2,000 trading companies, offering new outlets for China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation.

Thanks to the spate of measures, the area's trade with SCO countries surged to 8.1 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022 from 850 million yuan in 2019.

Several Kazakhstan enterprises have recently reached a cooperation intention with the SCO demonstration zone to set up a trading center in Qingdao for specialty agricultural products from Kazakhstan, including barley, linseed, corn, and soybeans.

"The SCO demonstration zone is an important platform for logistics, trade, and investment cooperation between Central Asian countries and China, providing great opportunities for the development of Central Asian countries," said Botakoz Yelshibek, head of the Kazakhstan exhibition area at the ongoing SCO International Investment and Trade Expo held in Qingdao.

"China's economic growth momentum is strong, and I hope that more Kazakh businessmen will continue to deeply integrate into China's new development paradigm and achieve win-win results through cooperation," said the 24-year-old, who has studied and worked in China for six years.

So far, the SCO demonstration area in Qingdao has attracted more than 70 investment projects with a total investment of over 200 billion yuan.

The China-SCO Institute of Economy and Trade in Qingdao is also training economic and trade professionals for the SCO countries and others along the Belt and Road.

Established in January 2022, the institute has held over 130 training programs covering international logistics and cross-border e-commerce and trained over 9,900 people from 43 SCO countries and others along the Belt and Road.

As a unique economic and trade zone for SCO countries, the SCO demonstration area in Qingdao has massive potential, said Hakimov Masum, an official with Uzbekistan's Tashkent State Transport University.

It also plays a key role in promoting new technologies and technology conversion in SCO countries and boosting international economic and trade cooperation, said Hakimov Masum.