The China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area. [Photo/Dazhong Daily]

As a gateway to the Asian and European continents, Shandong has leveraged its geographic advantages and convenient transport in both land and sea, integrated into the Belt and Road Initiative, and accelerated the construction of the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA) to boost cooperation with five Central Asian countries.

Since 2018, the total amount of the China-Europe Railway Express freight trains from SCODA to the five Central Asian countries has exceeded 1,600, with more than 130,000 standard containers and total cargo weight exceeding 1.1 million metric tons.

Statistics from Qingdao Customs indicate that Shandong's total import and export value to five Central Asian countries reached 8.08 billion yuan ($1.13 billion) in the first four months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 19.3 percent.

Exporting services and technology

At the oil field of Aktau in Kazakhstan, the Shandong-based KERUI Petroleum & Gas Company service team conducted a regular device maintenance inspection for customers.

Sun Fuying, regional head of the Kazakhstan branch at KERUI, said this inspection is set to provide fault-handling upgrade and renovation services for local oil and gas operating equipment.

So far, KERUI has conducted extensive business in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and other countries and regions. It has established oil and gas equipment service centers and spare parts warehouses in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan's major oil and gas operating areas, achieving resource connectivity through an improved marketing and service network.

Uploaded containers are seen at Qingdao Port in Shandong province on Jan 9, 2023. [Photo/VCG]

While exporting services and technology, Shandong enterprises are also investing in Central Asia. Since 2017, Shandong Lisente Agricultural Technology Co Ltd has built over 1 million square meters of membrane greenhouses in Uzbekistan, yielding about 100 tons of vegetables per hectare.

Wang Shoubo, chairman of Lisente, said the vegetables produced by the company in Uzbekistan are mainly supplied to the Russian and European markets. Lisente plans to provide production services such as seedlings, planting management, and sales for Uzbekistan growers this year.

In 2022, Shandong's actual investment in the five Central Asian countries reached $3.57 million. The amount hit $2.09 million in the first quarter of this year.

Key platform

The Uzbek Republican Commodity Exchange, or UZEX, Central Asia's most significant trading platform, opened its Qingdao branch in SCODA in 2021.

"We aim to create a cross-border trading platform with multiple functions such as trade, technology transfer, services, the release of product information, warehousing, logistics, and training," said Xiong Xuehua, business manager of the operating unit of UZEX's Qingdao branch.

UZEX specializes in exporting cotton, non-ferrous metals, and fertilizers, as well as importing building materials, light textiles, machinery and electronics, home appliances, and food products.