Policies implemented by the Shandong government to further open up and stabilize foreign trade and investment have been producing results, according to local authorities.

Official statistics show that in the first three quarters of this year, 2,003 new foreign-funded enterprises were established in Shandong, up 17.5 percent year on year. Actual utilized foreign capital reached $10.78 billion, up 27.9 percent, while the province's imports and exports grew 4.2 percent, 3.5 percentage points higher than the national average.

A US cargo ship docks at Qingdao Port in Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Shaoyue/For China Daily]

According to Zhang Deping, director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, in the past two years, Shandong has introduced 45 policies and measures to strengthen reform and opening up and build an open economic system.

Zhang said that the province has fully implemented the "pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list" management system for foreign investment, streamlined customs clearance procedures and reduced costs, and launched new business models to facilitate trade and investment.

Shandong has also reached institutional arrangements in nine areas of economic and trade cooperation with Japan and South Korea.

Official data show that after more than two years of effort, Shandong's foreign trade structure continues to improve. The proportion of imports and exports by private enterprises and general trade rose from 59.1 percent and 64.8 percent in 2017 to 68.6 percent and 68.4 percent in the first three quarters of this year, respectively.

Meanwhile, the proportion of foreign investment in high-tech industries rose from 14.1 percent in 2019 to 18.5 percent in the first three quarters of this year, while the province's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports achieved an average annual growth rate of 103.4 percent.

In addition, Shandong's has continued to integrate further into the Belt and Road Initiative.

The province's Qilu Eurasian freight train runs directly to 14 countries and 42 cities involved in the Belt and Road. It has made a total of 2,280 trips over the past two years.

The province has also established a unified service platform for the Eurasian international logistics corridor between Shandong, South Korea, and Japan, and has launched land-sea express lines to Japan and South Korea.

In the first three quarters of this year, the province's 13 foreign economic and trade cooperation zones received 2.36 billion yuan ($351.64 million) in investment.

Shandong will continue efforts to open up on all fronts, said Zhang.