The China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone Qingdao Area (from now on referred to as the Qingdao FTZ) has made significant progress in fostering new drivers of growth and promoting greater innovation to facilitate local development.

The Qingdao FTZ, covering an area of 52 square kilometers, was launched on Aug 31, 2019 and focuses on the development of the modern marine industry, international trade, shipping logistics, modern finance and advanced manufacturing.  

Containers are unloaded at Qingdao Port in Shandong province in March. [Photo by Yu Fangping/For China Daily]

Official statistics showed that in 2019, there were 1,851 newly registered market entities in the Qingdao FTZ, including 64 foreign-funded enterprises. It also has 78 industrial projects currently under construction or slated for construction, with a total investment of 86.9 billion yuan ($12.61 billion).

Among 106 pilot tasks in the overall blueprint for the Qingdao FTZ, 96 have been implemented to date. The FTZ has reported 12 pioneering institutional innovation cases to the Ministry of Commerce, which can be replicated in other areas of China.

The Sino-German Eco-park, as an important part of the Qingdao FTZ, has launched new policies on financial innovation to attract high-quality financial resources. In the first half of the year, 39 new financial institutions were established in the park, bringing the total number to 78.

A maker center in the Qingdao FTZ [Photo/iqilu.com]

The Qingdao FTZ has established a digital platform which has gathered more than 2,000 business associations and served more than 10,000 enterprises in the Jiaodong Peninsula.

COSMOPlat, an industrial internet platform developed by China's home appliance maker Haier, is based in the Qingdao FTZ. The platform offers mass-scale services in 15 sectors, including ceramics, vehicles, clothing and agriculture.

The platform is ramping up efforts to advance the high-quality development of the Yellow River basin relying on a series of digital solutions. It has teamed up with 387 enterprises from the Yellow River basin.