Qingdao reinforces its role as a foreign trade highland

From Oct 8 to 9, a media tour titled "Open Qingdao" took place in the city, where participants explored the strategies that position Shandong as a leader in foreign trade.

Since its establishment five years ago, the Qingdao Area of the China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Qingdao FTZ) has leveraged its unique coastal advantages to enhance its position as an international hub.

With coordinated efforts across land and sea, its cumulative import and export volume has exceeded 800 billion yuan ($113.04 million), with an average annual growth rate surpassing 20 percent.

Over the past five years, the Qingdao FTZ has optimized its business environment, pioneering measures like instant business registration confirmation and smart forms for registration changes. These streamlining initiatives have improved efficiency by over 70 percent by enabling the automatic generation of over 4,000 registration materials. As a result, the zone is the fastest in business registration and ranks among the top in the nation for construction project approvals.

The zone has drawn 88 new investment projects from the Fortune Global 500 companies, totaling 182 projects, along with 89 foreign investments over $10 million and 758 domestic investments over 100 million yuan. The zone has also attracted over 2,000 international talents to fill 30,400 new jobs for degree holders.