China's Ministry of Commerce announced the establishment of the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone, which includes areas in Jinan, Qingdao, and Yantai, on Aug 26.

The Yantai area of Shandong FTZ, with an area of 29.99 square kilometers, consists of the Sino-Korea (Yantai) Industrial Park and the west part of Yantai Bonded Port Area, which is located in Yantai Economic and Technological Development Area.

The area will focus on developing high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, new generation information technology, biomedicine, and producer services to fuel the Shandong FTZ.

It has gathered more than 3,000 industrial companies, 124 financial institutions and 215 scientific and technological innovation platforms of various types.

Yantai will also give full play to its advantages as a coastal city to boost the high-quality development of marine economy and step up collaboration with South Korea by attracting more investment and encouraging companies to expand overseas.

Accordingly, a total of six new pilot free trade zones were set up at the time. The other five are in Jiangsu, Hebei, Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

To date, there are 18 FTZs across the country. Wang Shouwen, vice-minister of commerce, said the move reflects the government's resolve to achieve high-level opening-up and support an opening world economy.