Qingdao demo zone 'key' to closer global ties

Since being approved by the State Council in September 2019, the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area in Qingdao, Shandong province, has been making efforts to enhance its role as a regional logistics hub serving the Shanghai Cooperation Organization region and the Belt and Road economies, according to local officials at the area's work report conference on Wednesday.

The demonstration area is located in Jiaozhou, a county-level city of Qingdao. Its trade volume with other SCO countries increased nearly five-fold from 850 million yuan ($126.9 million) in 2019 to 4 billion yuan last year. Its two-way investment with other SCO countries totaled $226.8 million last year, 56 times the amount in 2020.

It has opened 25 domestic and international freight train routes, linking 49 cities in 20 countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. In the first five months of this year, the area saw 357 China-Europe freight train trips, up 37.3 percent year-on-year.