The 2023 China-Japan Business Leaders Qingdao Dialogue was held on July 14 in Qingdao West Coast New Area in a bid to set up a new platform for economic and trade cooperation between Qingdao and Japan.

The event was attended by over 300 guests, including government officials, representatives from large Japanese companies such as Orix, Mitsui, Itochu, Mitsubishi Chemical, Marubeni, Panasonic, Toray, and Hitachi, as well as the Japanese trade promotion agency JETRO and the Japan-China Economic Association.

Representatives from government departments, companies and trade promotion agencies from both Qingdao and Japan attend the event. [Photo/WeChat account: qingdaozimao]

Representatives of domestic companies, including Haifa Group, Hisense, Qingdao Port Group, Tsingtao Brewery, and Qingdao Beverage Group also took part in the event.

In his speech, Qingdao Mayor Zhao Haozhi said that Qingdao is one of the closest Chinese cities to Japan, with very close economic and trade exchanges. More than 30 sea routes and many direct air routes bring the connection between the two places closer.

According to Zhao, Japan is the third largest source of foreign investment and the third largest trading destination of Qingdao, and many well-known Japanese enterprises such as Orix, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Toray, Marubeni and Itochu have invested in Qingdao.

Qingdao mayor Zhao Haozhi delivers a speech at the event. [Photo/WeChat account: qingdaozimao]

Qingdao is speeding up its construction as a modern international metropolis, and looks forward to strengthening cooperation with the Japanese business community in such industrial fields as intelligent manufacturing, automobiles, modern commerce and trade, financial logistics and trade, biopharmaceuticals, medical care and green, low-carbon and new energy undertakings, so as to jointly seize development opportunities and achieve win-win development, said Zhao.

Masaru Igawahara, consul general of Japan in Qingdao, noted that the economic ties between Qingdao and Japan are long and deep. The first foreign joint venture and foreign bank in Qingdao came from Japan, the first international air route in Shandong province is the route from Qingdao to Osaka, and more than half of the Japanese enterprises operating in Shandong are concentrated in Qingdao.

He believed that the dialogue will provide a platform for Japanese entrepreneurs to exchange with the governments of Shandong province and Qingdao city as well as Chinese enterprises, and hoped that it will be used as an opportunity to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in more fields.