Shandong's foreign trade is expected to maintain steady upward momentum this year despite the gloomy global environment, according to a Shandong provincial government senior official.

"Thanks to the positive measures the government has applied, foreign trade saw a 9.1 percent year-on-year increase during the first three quarters and the growth is expected to continue in the october quarter," Xia Geng, vice-governor of Shandong province, said at a group interview last month.

The province's foreign trade totaled $209.48 billion in the first three quarters, according to statistics from Shandong provincial commerce department.

"If foreign trade can't maintain sound development, it will affect seven million people who are working at the 38,000 foreign trade-involved enterprises in Shandong," Xia said.

To promote foreign trade, Xia said Shandong government rolled out policies to support foreign trade in six aspects including management systems and cross-border e-commerce.

The local government encouraged enterprises to expand their businesses into overseas markets.

By the end of last year, Shandong authorities had approved 3,562 enterprises to establish branches overseas, involving $25.7 billion worth of chinese investment.

One example was the Economic and Trade cooperation Zone, which was established in Tomsk, Russia by yantai-based aVic Forestry. After years of development, the zone's total assets reached $490 million by the end of 2013. Nineteen enterprises set up production facilities in the zone.

As one of china's most developed agricultural regions, Shandong's agricultural exports are increasing thanks to efforts to improve quality control.

The province exported $15.21 billion worth of agricultural products to overseas markets last year. This accounted for 22.7 percent of the country's total agricultural exports, according to Shandong provincial commerce department's statistics. Shandong ranked first in the country for agricultural exports for 15 consecutive years.

The high-quality of agricultural products produced in Shandong is the main reason they are favored by overseas countries and regions, said lyu Wei, deputy head of Shandong provincial commerce department.

"Of the agricultural products exported last year, 99.95 percent met the standards required by the destination countries," lyu said.

A total of 78 export demonstration zones for agricultural products were established across Shandong to oversee quality control.

Lyu said standards applied at the zones would be gradually introduced for domestic agricultural product markets.

Shandong's agricultural products are sold to countries including Japan, those in the European Union and the association of Southeast asian nations. This year Russia has bought more agricultural products from Shandong.

Steady growth

In the first eight months of the year, agricultural exports to Russia were valued at $370 million. This marked a yearon-year increase of 15.1 percent, which was partly due to Russia's restrictions on agricultural imports from the European Union, the United States, canada, australia and norway.

Yantai north andre Juice co ltd sold 11,000 metric tons of juice to Russia during the first nine months of the year, a yearon-year increase of 82 percent.

Zhang hui, general manager of yantai north andre Juice, expected the growth to continue in the coming months.

To build a platform for enterprises to seek for cooperation, Shandong government has held trade talks in hong Kong for six consecutive years. These talks resulted in 1,328 contracts, involving foreign investment of more than $100 billion.

In July, Xia led a delegation composed of vice mayors of the province's 17 cities to the Shandong and hong Kong investment campaign in hong Kong.

A roundtable conference on financial cooperation between Shandong and hong Kong and talks on cooperation between State-owned enterprises and overseas investors were held during the investment campaign, which saw ten contracts signed. These involved 30.3 billion yuan and covered six sectors including ship-building, energy and finance.

Xia said industrial structures have to be upgraded to enhance the province's overall competitiveness in foreign trade.

A modern industrial system that features advanced products, technology and services is due to be constructed in the coming years.

To create a sound and convenient investment environment, Shandong selected 12 zones as pilot bases, where five aspects such as administrative management and project approval procedures will be simplified. Among these zones are Jinan new material industrial Zone, Weihai Economic and Technological development Zone and linyi Economic and Technological development Zone.

Xia said that the economic and technological development zones played an important role in Shandong's foreign trade.

Shandong has more than 160 provincial-level and national-level economic zones. These cover 9.5 percent of the total area of Shandong province and contribute to 51 percent of Shandong's Gdp and 40 percent to the province's revenue.

Foreign trade generated by these economic zones account for 56.4 percent of the province's total amount, and foreign investment used by the economic zones account for 55.9 percent.

Contact the writers at juchuanjiang@chinadaily.com.cn and zhaoruixue@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 11/06/2014 page7)