Jinan listed as pilot city for China's modern trade circulation

Jinan, capital of Shandong province, has been listed among the first group of Chinese pilot cities for a modern trade circulation system, the Ministry of Commerce recently announced.

The plan will be implemented in three phases from 2024 to 2026, through which the country aims to create a group of modern trade circulation hubs with coordinated urban and rural development. It focuses on five areas: promoting the integrated development of urban and rural trade circulation; establishing a supply guarantee system for essential goods circulation; improving the rural trade circulation system; accelerating the cultivation of modern circulation backbone enterprises; and improving the urban-rural recycling system.

In 2023, Jinan's GDP exceeded 1.27 trillion yuan ($175.3 billion), up 6.1 percent year-on-year and ranking fourth among the 26 cities in China with a GDP over 1 trillion yuan. The city has high-speed rail connections to 254 cities nationwide, while its airports operate about 180 domestic routes and 14 international routes.

Jinan is part of the nation's Yellow River development strategy and is working to boost the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the integration of the Yangtze River Delta. It is also a major node in the New Eurasian Continental Bridge Economic Corridor and an important channel for accessing East Asia from the central and western inland areas.

Recognizing the importance of smooth logistics, Jinan will build a modern circulation operating system of "channels, hubs and networks", enhancing the levels of networking, collaboration, standardization, digitalization, intelligence, greenness and globalization in trade circulation. The city plans to increase the number of key logistics enterprises (national level 3A and above) to over 200.