[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

At present, Shandong has established national overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in Pakistan and Russia. Haier Group, Weichai Power and Himile Group have set up factories in India to conduct international cooperation in manufacturing and production of home appliances, engines and molds.

While “going out”, Shandong also actively set up a platform for “bringing in”. In the Sino-Russian Science and Technology Innovation Park in the Yantai Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, Russian businessman Andre is in the process of registering a company and looking for a Chinese partner for a wheel-drive device business. Andre said, "The infrastructure here is perfect, and any start-ups can get strong support."

Yantai was one of the earliest cities seeking cooperation between China and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Based on the good foundation of non-governmental exchanges between the two places, Yantai established the park to promote high-level scientific and technological exchanges between China and Russia. It has achieved cooperation on 129 new materials and bioengineering projects.

In 2017, Shandong’s trade volume with the SCO was 118.6 billion yuan ($18.6 billion), of which exports were 68.2 billion yuan and imports were 50.4 billion yuan. Though it accounts for no more than 6 percent of Shandong’s total foreign trade volume, the development potential is huge.

Shi Qidong, deputy director of the Asia and Africa Division of the Department of Commerce of Shandong Province, said that India is the world's second most populous country. Pakistan has more than 200 million people and Russia has more than 100 million. These are all large markets with good potential for growth. Their economic growth rate will be over 5 percent in the next few years.

"The SCO Summit in Shandong will play a leading role, and we will study and analyze these countries as the next step; that is why I think we will have great development opportunities soon," he added.