City by the sea celebrates Belt and Road partnership

Qingdao Day, held on Sept 17 at Expo Milano 2015, was regarded as a success.

The day was made possible by the hard work of the Qingdao sub-council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. In the past 12 months, the subcouncil signed co-working agreements with 24 commercial societies in eight Belt and Road Initiative countries and maintained economic relations with 38 countries, all of which have made their policies favorable to Qingdao enterprises.

Since the beginning of 2015, CCPIT Qingdao Sub-council has facilitated more than 160 events in the city, of which 15 exhibitions and 56 high-end meetings were hosted by cities that Qingdao specifically targeted.

A passenger liner summit, organized with the Northeast Asia Industrial International Cooperation Forum, attracted passenger liner groups and tourism companies from the United States, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sri Lanka and the Republic of Korea.

More than 30 renowned economists, top financial institution executives and entrepreneurs attended the China Wealth Management Forum in Qingdao, a platform for industry insiders to interact.

They also invited guest exhibitions to the city to raise its profile as an international host for exhibitions and conventions. For the 2015 National Pharmaceutical Machinery Exposition and China International Pharmaceutical Machinery Exposition, more than 1,000 global pharmaceutical machinery companies displayed their advanced technologies and health-maintaining machines, making the event one of the biggest of its kind in the world, according to Qingdao officials.

The sub-council also arranged for enterprise groups to visit Japan, the ROK and Singapore. It helped attract investments from companies from Singapore, the Netherlands and ROK, who invested more than $18 million in the port city. Stertil Group, the Dutch global producer of heavy machinery, established its third production base in Qingdao, which is expected to boost local industrial development.

As exports faced downward pressure in 2014, Qingdao hosted exhibitions overseas in a bid to reverse the trend and 251 companies participated in 37 expositions overseas.

Qingdao has been using senior leaders' state visits to promote interaction between local enterprises and their global counterparts and Expo Milano 2015 was no exception. Following the visits of the Association of Chinese Businesses in Italy to Qingdao, the branch signed cooperation agreements with them, which laid the foundation for Qingdao Day.

In the remaining months of 2015, the subcouncil plans to use more events like the 2015 World Leisure Games, which opened on Sept 12, the World Internet Industry Conference to be held in October, and the EU-China Technology and Business Cooperation Fair, to raise the profile of Qingdao's enterprises.

Belt and Road Initiative countries are expected to be the key areas where trade and mutual investment are promoted. In the coming few years, Qingdao plans to continue using the platforms to bridge the gap between local and global enterprises and go overseas.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/21/2015 page7)