As an important platform for the current cooperation between Europe and Asia, the holding of each SCO summit will bring significant development opportunities to the economic development, opening up and international cooperation of the host country.

Since the establishment of the SCO, Shandong has maintained good multi-field cooperation with its member states, observer countries, dialogue partners and participating guests. With the further development of the "Belt and Road" initiative, economic cooperation and cultural exchanges between Shandong and SCO countries are becoming increasingly close. In June 2018, the Qingdao Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was successfully held. The participating countries coordinated their positions on major international and regional issues and reached broad consensus. They signed and issued a series of documents, such as the Qingdao Declaration of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Joint Statement of the Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Trade Facilitation. General Secretary Xi Jinping also clearly stated in his speech that the Chinese government supports the construction of the "China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone" in Qingdao, creating new opportunities for Shandong's development. Our province should firmly grasp the opportunity of the Qingdao Summit, give full play to its own advantages, actively participate in the exchanges and cooperation in various fields of the SCO, deeply integrate into the construction of the “Belt and Road” and promote a new round of high-level opening up to the outside world, inject new kinetic energy into the construction of a strong economic and cultural province in the new era.

Promoting infrastructure interconnection and building SCO Shandong estuary

Shandong has excellent geographical location, well-developed transportation and logistics, and has good conditions for creating SCO Shandong estuary. As the bridgehead at the eastern end of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge, Shandong faces the Pacific on the East, and across the sea from Japan and Korea; to the west, connected with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries through the New Eurasian Continental Bridge; to the north coast, it can reach the Russian Far East port and to the South, it can reach the the important ports of India and Pakistan through the sea. The strategic location of connecting the east-west direction and communicating the north-south direction has made Shandong a meeting point for “The Belt and Road”. At the same time, Shandong's transportation infrastructure is perfect, especially the port is rich in resources. Shandong is the only province in China with three ports of over 400 million tons (Qingdao Port, Yantai Port, Rizhao Port). Shandong has opened six China-South Korea land and sea transport channels, and the first multinational multimodal transport mode of land and sea transport in China can ensure the efficiency and convenience of sea route. In recent years, Qingdao, Weifang, Linyi and other nine cities of Shandong have successively opened a number of train routes to Europe and central Asia. Most of these trains operated along the New Eurasian Continental Bridge and the economic corridor of China, Mongolia and Russia., passed through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and other SCO member countries, reached important hub cities along Moscow, Almaty and Tashkent, effectively improved Land transport efficiency and reduced costs. 

In the future, Shandong should further strengthen its interconnection of the infrastructure with the SCO member countries, promote integration of port resource, plan important hubs for land and sea transportation and regional aviation hubs, actively carry out pilot projects such as multimodal transport demonstration, international transit consolidation business and international transit innovation of bulk commodities; optimize and integrate existing central Europe and Central Asian trains, guide an interactive collaboration mechanism for all lines, establish close cooperation with local logistics and freight forwarding companies in the countries along the way and destination countries, build a line with high level of market-oriented operation, prominent advantages, mature operation. At the same time, we should accelerate the construction of Qingdao Eurasian Economic and Trade Cooperation Industrial Park, do a good job in the high-end promotion activities of international transit trade logistics hubs such as Eurasian Park and Yantai International Integrated Logistics Park, promote two-way interaction between Shandong logistics enterprises and countries along the New Eurasian Continental Bridge and Trans-Asian Railway, create a gathering area of Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Park for the SCO. Through these measures, Shandong will become an international logistics integrated service base serving the SCO countries, innovation demonstration base for land bridge transportation cooperation policy mechanism with port as traction, and the development base for cross-border trade and international industrial cooperation. Shandong will become the most important port for SCO countries to face the Asia Pacific market.  

Strengthening cooperation in international investment and production capacity, and promoting the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones 

Shandong has strong economic strength, good industrial base and complete industrial system, especially in the fields of light industry, textiles, building materials, steel, electronics, chemicals and machinery. Promoting the outward transfer of advantageous industries and surplus production capacity has great significance for accelerating the transformation of new and old kinetic energy in our province. In recent years, the two-way investment and capacity cooperation between Shandong and the SCO member countries have been closely coordinated, a number of cooperation projects have been carried out in the power engineering, transportation, petrochemical and other industries. In 2017, Shandong absorbed 1.25 billion from SCO member countries, mainly from Russia and India. Actual investment in the SCO is 440 million. At the same time, Shandong is also actively building a platform for foreign investment cooperation. Among the four state-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zones confirmed by the Ministry of Commerce, two are located in the SCO countries, namely the Sino-Russian Tomsk Timber Industry and Trade Cooperation Zone and the Pakistan Haier-Ruba Economic Zone.

In the next step, Shandong enterprises should formulate targeted investment strategies based on the different resources and economic development stages of the SCO member states, and actively seek financial support from Silk Road Fund, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and SCO Development Bank. Specifically, Shandong enterprises can focus on investing in capital-intensive industries such as oil and gas, minerals, infrastructure, and machinery manufacturing in Russia; investing in information technology, infrastructure, and high-end manufacturing in India; investing in infrastructure, energy, automotive, machinery and electronics, food processing, etc. in Pakistan; investing in energy resources, agriculture, etc. in the Central Asian countries, and with the help of international engineering contracting projects, investing in metallurgy, building materials, machinery and equipment. At the same time, we should further improve and innovate the service functions of the existing overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, bring in upstream and downstream enterprises in related industries and necessary investment consulting, financial logistics, information service companies, etc., provide services in relation to the national conditions, industries, culture and legal information that were related to the host country for the enterprises, attract more companies to the zone, support qualified provincial-level overseas zones to build national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. 

Implementing the Qingdao Declaration, improving the level of trade facilitation

In recent years, trade between Shandong and the SCO member countries has become increasingly close, Shandong enterprises have paid more and more attention to the national market of SCO member states. In 2017, Shandong planned 100 exhibitions in the overseas market, as many as 14 exhibitions were held in SCO member countries. In 2017, Shandong achieved a total of 118.6 billion in foreign trade import and export to the SCO member countries, of which exports were 68.2 billion and imports were 50.4 billion. Although it currently accounts for only about 7% of Shandong’s total foreign trade, considering that the population of SCO member countries accounts for 2/1 of the global population and its higher economic growth, and the trade between Shandong and the SCO member countries is complementary, there is huge room for development and potential for future trade cooperation. 

In the next step, Shandong should research and accurately analyze the consumption habits and demand characteristics of Russia, India and other SCO countries, identify the main direction and carry out differentiated and complementary trade cooperation. We could establish Shandong Product Trade Center or Exhibition Center and Storage Center in key cities of SCO member countries. We can encourage a group of companies with strong brand advantages and good market base to go to the SCO member countries to establish regional sales headquarters, overseas specialty stores, trade representative offices, etc; use the cross-border e-commerce platform to develop the SCO national market; build cross-border e-commerce public overseas warehouse in key countries and key cities; make full use of the policy of encouraging imports, encourage enterprises to import advanced technology and important equipment from Russia and other countries, which is urgently needed by the new and old kinetic energy conversion project; actively create new highlights in trade cooperation between Shandong and SCO member countries.

At the same time, the level of trade facilitation in our province should be improved, especially the  the level of customs clearance facilitation in Central Europe and Central Asia. Qingdao summit of SCO has achieved fruitful results. The statement on trade facilitation means that promoting trade facilitation will become an important direction for regional economic cooperation. Therefore, on the one hand, we will in-depth implement of customs integration reform, promote customs inspection "One declaration, one inspection, one release" "one-stop operation", speed up the construction of Shandong electronic port, implement "separate window" to accept international trade and further reduce cargo clearance time; On the other hand, the procedures for applying for passports for business activities in the SCO countries should be simplified and the person in key import and export enterprises should be given the convenience of applying for multiple valid visas within one year. 

Expanding the space for cultural exchange and cooperation, optimizing and enhancing the cooperation model of friendship city

Shandong is known as “Hometown of Confucius and Mencius, Country of manners and appearance”. Qilu culture, represented by Confucian culture, has a long history and has extensive and far-reaching influence overseas. The major cultural activities such as the international Confucius Culture Festival, the world Confucian conference and the Ni Shan forum have become a high-end platform for SCO, even the "belt and road" to carry out civilization dialogue, value mutual learning and cultural exchange. In the international exchanges, we adheres to the exchange concept of "seeking common ground while reserving differences" and "Harmony without sameness" and respect each other's cultural traditions. This is the embodiment of "Spirit of the Silk Road" and "Shanghai Spirit". At the same time, the friendship between Shandong and the SCO member countries has also achieved remarkable results. At present, it has established 2 pairs of provincial-level friendship cities and 11 pairs of city-level friendship cities with the SCO member states, and established 3 pairs of provincial-level friendly cooperative cities, 8 pairs of city-level friendly cooperative cities. The honorary title of "Shandong Province People's Friendly Messenger" was awarded to 6 citizens of SCO member states. This effectively promoted the pragmatic cooperation between the two sides.

In the future, we should further expand the space for exchanges and cooperation with the SCO countries in the fields of culture, education, and academics, and strive to build the SCO International cultural Cooperation and Exchange Center and important bases. We should use the opportunity of the Qingdao Summit to strengthen contact and cooperation with the mainstream media of the SCO member countries. With the help of overseas media, Qilu culture with Confucianism as its main content is disseminated vigorously, and the economic and social development of contemporary Shandong is propagated. We will strengthen the production of artistic creation, the protection of cultural heritage and the development of cultural products with the theme of SCO, create the brand of "Confucius's hometown, Shandong China ", use the international language to tell good stories about Confucius, Confucianism and Shandong. We should further strengthen the construction of friendly cities, provinces and states of the member countries of SCO, optimize and enhance the cooperation model of the Friendship City, explore a friendly and cooperative joint meeting mechanism, and promote cooperation between the two sides in various fields; We will play to the positive role of trade organizations and overseas Chinese organizations, expand exchanges and cooperation among think tanks, enhance mutual understanding and promote friendly exchanges. We should attach importance to the construction of cultural silk roads, actively build high-end cultural exchange platforms for SCO member countries, and build international cultural exchange and cooperation bases. Art groups from member countries of the SCO could give a touring performance in Shandong. We will strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in higher education, focus on arts, music, medicine and other majors.

Promoting cross-border tourism cooperation, enhancing the overseas popularity of Shandong tourism brands

In recent years, SCO has developed into a comprehensive regional organization with the largest population, the most extensive territory and great potential in the world, which has rich tourism resources and multiple culture. Shandong is a major province of tourism resources . It is one of the first airports of the Maritime Silk Road. The tourism industry is a fruitful and leading industry in the economic and trade cooperation between Shandong and the member countries of SCO. Our province invited travel companies and media from Russia, India and other member countries to visit Shandong for tourist routes, conduct overseas publicity, and hold tourism promotion conferences, which effectively enhances the overseas tourist market's understanding of Shandong tourism products and resources. At present, Shandong has established cooperation with 3 Russian travel agencies and 5 travel agencies in India. 

We should take advantage of the opportunity of the Qingdao Summit of SCO to promote tourism resources and tourism products and enhance the popularity of Shandong tourism brands in overseas markets, especially in the member countries of SCO. We will actively follow up the tourism cooperation development strategy of the National Tourism Administration's "belt and road” and promote the "belt and road" tourism project, product landing and marketing work. Focus on the Russian market, we should increase the marketing channels, support Weihai, Yantai and other cities to open Russian tourism flights, cooperate with Russian professional companies, establish Russian tourism website, produce Russian tourism brochures and so on. We will build Shandong tourism overseas promotion platform, build overseas tourism promotion network, hold Shandong international tourism fair and tourism festival, promote the internationalization of "friendly Shandong" brand. At the same time, our province actively carries out tourism cooperation with the government and enterprises of member countries of SCO, and jointly promotes exchanges and cooperation in improving the visa system, expanding air routes, optimizing the tourism guide system and so on. Tourism enterprises of both sides jointly develop tourism products, actively integrate tourism resources of both sides, and jointly launch good tourism routes.   

(The author is president of SASS, researcher of the Shandong Socialist Theory System Research Center, and the chief expert of the Shandong Regional Development Theory and Practice Innovation Research Base. Liu Xiaoning, Gu Chuntai and Cui Fengxiang participated in the study of this article.)