Shandong - Qingdao Free Trade Zone

Qingdao Free Trade Zone (including the Logistics Park of Qingdao Free Trade Zone)

Facts and Figures (2007)

Source: Administration Committee of Qingdao Free Trade Zone

Introduction

The Qingdao Free Trade Zone (Qingdao FTZ) was set up by the State Council in 1992, and has a planned area of 2.5 km². It commenced operation in 1993. Within the Qingdao FTZ, there is a logistics park.

Qingdao FTZ is located in the Huangdao District, adjacent to the Qianwan Dock of Qingdao Port. The Qingdao Port is the currently the nation's fifth-largest and the world's seventh-largest seaport, with its freight throughput reaching 265 million tons in 2007. The nearest airport from Qingdao FTZ is the Qingdao Liuting Airport, which is a distance of 45 km away.

Besides air and water transport, Qingdao FTZ is connected with Qingdao's downtown area by the Jiaozhou Bay Highway, the length of which is 66 km. This highway also connects the FTZ with other highways, which lead to Yantai, Weihai, Jinan, Beijing, Fuzhou and Yinchuan.  

Investment Climate

According to its plan, the following types of companies are allowed to be set up in Qingdao FTZ: trading, processing, warehousing, logistics, distribution, real estate development and transport. The key industries encouraged are those specializing in container transport, product storage, ocean transport, export processing, high-tech export-oriented industries and export trade.

At present, almost one-thousand foreign-invested companies have been set up in Qingdao FTZ, with an accumulated investment value of US$1.6 billion by the end of 2007. There are nineteen enterprises from Fortune 500, including Japan's Itochu, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Nissho Iwai, Marubeni and Panasonic, and Lucent, Eastman, PL Plastic, Mediterranean Shipping and Maersk from the U.S.

Logistics is the major function of Qingdao FTZ. At present, there are over one-hundred and twenty logistics companies in the zone. By end of 2007, the total investments of these companies amounted to RMB 1.5 billion.

Qingdao FTZ is also one of the international commodity exchanges in China. The major exchange products are natural rubber, cotton, mining rights, agricultural products, building materials and coal. Among them, the natural rubber exchange market was the first and largest of its kind in China. In 2007, its annual exchange volume of rubber reached 400,000 tons, accounting for approximately one third of the nation's total. It is currently the world's third-largest natural rubber exchange, after Singapore and Tokyo.

Qingdao FTZ's mining rights exchange is the only one in China. At present, there are over 10,000 member enterprises in the FTZ's exchange market, with annual transaction value exceeding RMB 50 billion.