Jinan FTZ holds BRI Intl Economic Cooperation Forum at CIIE

The management committee of the Jinan Area of the China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the China Association for International Economic Cooperation held the Belt and Road International Economic Cooperation Forum on Nov 6 during the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE).

The forum is aimed at promoting the development and achievements of the Jinan FTZ and its cross-border digital service platform, and connecting the achievements in economic innovation and cooperative development with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Since its establishment four years ago, the Jinan FTZ has been striving to become an internationally competitive biopharmaceutical industry cluster, a demonstration area for digital economy innovation, and an important gateway for opening-up in the Yellow River Basin. The FTZ has actively aligned itself with the BRI and deepened international economic cooperation through measures such as undertaking stress tests and institutional innovation, said Guo Kai, executive deputy director of the management committee of Jinan FTZ.

In the first half of this year, the total import and export volume between Jinan and countries involved in the BRI increased 10.4 percent year-on-year to reach 40.44 billion yuan ($5.56 billion).

During the forum, Chen Hao, deputy director of the management committee of Jinan FTZ, said that the cross-border digital service platform mainly focuses on market-oriented allocation of data elements, digital reform of cross-border services, and integrates cutting-edge technological advantages. The platform has diversified its functions into four major areas: cross-border information services, data registration and transactions, supercomputing services, and intelligent machine translation.

In recent years, the Jinan FTZ has been bolstering efforts to deepen international cooperation with countries and regions involved in the BRI to achieve higher-quality and higher-level development. In terms of digital economy development, the Jinan FTZ has been taking measures to build globally competitive digital industry clusters. These efforts have resulted in Jinan being ranked 6th in China's digital economy city ranking.