An employee manages cargo bound for South Africa at Qingdao Port, Shandong province. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/For China Daily]

The China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone Qingdao Area, or Qingdao FTZ, in Qingdao city, Shandong province, where the Qingdao Port - the second-largest foreign trade port in China - is located, is playing an important role in Shandong's offshore trade with its new offshore trade working mechanism.

From January to October, Qingdao FTZ achieved an offshore trade revenue and expenditure of $7.2 billion, accounting for 90 percent of the city's total, and the figure is expected to exceed $9 billion for the whole year, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the province's total, a year-on-year increase of more than 10 percent, according to the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

With a focus on institutional innovation, Qingdao FTZ has created a new offshore trade working mechanism and ecosystem that integrates government policy guidance, foreign exchange management, in-depth bank services, platforms and enterprises' innovations.

The area launched Shandong's first policy for supporting the development of new offshore international trade, and has created an integrated service platform for offshore trade. The platform has obtained detailed data for inbound and outbound goods from customs from nearly 60 countries abroad, information on more than 230,000 containers and bulk container ships, and data on 6,000 major ports in the world. It also signed contracts with 16 banks and 11 offshore trade enterprises, and has verified offshore trade amount of $245 million, and the figure is expected to exceed $500 million within the year.

Cranes unload containers at Qingdao Port in Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Fangping/For China Daily]

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