Strong mechanisms, favorable policies, and diversified business models: Shandong adopts multiple measures to promote steady export growth

In the first 11 months of 2024, Shandong Province's import and export volume exceeded 3 trillion yuan (RMB, the same below), with exports increasing by 6.9% year-on-year, 0.2 percentage points better than the national average. On January 8th, at a press conference held by the Shandong Provincial People's Government, Cui Hongguang, Deputy Director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, introduced the province's various measures to promote steady export growth.

Photo of the press conference. Photo by Sha Jianlong

　　According to Cui Hongguang, Shandong has optimized its mechanism and policy supply, focusing on cultivating new foreign trade drivers such as cross-border e-commerce and "new three items," and has successively introduced 72 specific measures; it has deepened the "commerce +" work mechanism, bringing together resources from finance, ports, railway lines, and supply chains to work together. In the first 11 months, the "Lu Mao Loan" credit amount increased by 20.19% year-on-year, 2509 China-Europe freight trains were operated, and the cargo throughput of coastal ports exceeded 2 billion tons, strongly supporting the continued positive trend of the province's exports.

　　In 2024, Shandong implemented the "Good Products of Shandong, Global Trade" overseas market development campaign, organizing more than 8,000 enterprises to participate in over 270 exhibitions and trade fairs in markets such as ASEAN, Central Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and hosting 26 international precision procurement events in the province. Cui Hongguang said that in the first 11 months of this year, Shandong's exports to ASEAN, countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) emerging markets increased by 20.4%, 10.8%, and 10.2% respectively, high-tech product exports increased by 15.4% year-on-year, and agricultural product exports increased by 11.1% year-on-year.

　　Shandong implemented the Cross-border E-commerce Empowerment Industrial Belt High-Quality Development Action, cooperating with well-known cross-border e-commerce platforms to carry out more than 20 industrial belt empowerment activities, establishing 80 cross-border e-commerce industrial belt workstations, and focusing on cultivating 70 cross-border e-commerce trading service platforms, well-known brands, and commodity display centers. Cui Hongguang stated that Shandong has successively held events such as the Shandong Cross-border E-commerce Ecological Conference, the China (Shandong) Cross-border E-commerce Fair, and the Yellow River Basin Cross-border E-commerce Expo. In the first 11 months of this year, cross-border e-commerce exports accounted for 9.8%, and market procurement trade exports achieved double-digit growth.

　　It is understood that Shandong provides comprehensive cultivation for the first batch of 16 leading supply chain enterprises, issuing work measures to promote the accelerated development of leading supply chain enterprises; it has improved and perfected the used car export promotion mechanism, with the province's used car exports increasing by 26.6% year-on-year; it promotes the high-quality development of AEO enterprises, issuing 15 joint incentive measures for AEO enterprises; it makes good use of the "Shandong Province's Stable Foreign Trade and Investment Service Platform" and the "One Enterprise, One Policy" approach to coordinate and solve problems for enterprises in customs clearance, logistics, and other aspects, having cumulatively resolved more than 2,800 problems for foreign trade enterprises.

　　Zhang Ruihong, Deputy Director of Jinan Customs, introduced that in 2024, Jinan Customs has solidly promoted the construction of smart customs and the "Smart Customs, Strong Country" campaign, continuously optimizing customs supervision models and operating procedures, systematically promoting comprehensive reforms in the high-quality development of comprehensive bonded zones, free trade zone reforms, inland port regulatory system innovation, local inspection and quarantine reforms, and technical institution reforms, injecting reform vitality into the convenience of cross-border cargo clearance.

　　Zhang Ruihong gave an example, stating that for the export of dangerous goods, Jinan Customs has pioneered the "batch inspection" model reform nationwide. After completing the first on-site inspection, subsequent exports of the same type of goods are exempted from on-site inspection, improving enterprise customs clearance efficiency by 70%; at the air port, it pioneered the implementation of the "air-side direct access" operation mode, enabling domestic transit goods to be directly accessed to the international area, compressing the handling time of air transit goods by more than 70%.

　　In addition, Shandong continues to optimize the "commerce + finance" mechanism model, coordinating planning and collaborative efforts, vigorously promoting the "Good Products of Shandong, Global Trade" market development campaign, innovating cooperation paths and expanding service areas. In 2024, an additional 718.4 billion yuan in financial support was added in the field of commerce, a 12% increase year-on-year. Strengthening the synergy of "loan-insurance-guarantee," the "Lu Mao Loan" undertaking banks provided 14.5 billion yuan in loans, "Customs Insurance" released 7.1 billion yuan in customs bond, and "Qilu Import Loan" guaranteed 1.6 billion yuan in loans. According to preliminary calculations, the above-mentioned characteristic financial products have driven 79.1 billion yuan in enterprise imports and exports.