"We must give full play to the unique advantages of rich marine resources, manage the ocean and strive to strengthen the sea, build a world-class marine port group, and create a highland for modern marine economic development."

The short speech inspired people to forge ahead and pointed out the direction and provided fundamental guidelines for the development of my country's port shipping.

Qingdao is built on the sea and prospered because of the port. It has outstanding maritime characteristics and superior port resources and conditions. It has always been an important hub for shipping in northern China.

"Benchmarking international advanced shipping centers and accelerating the transformation from logistics ports to hub ports, trade ports, financial ports and service ports." Following the national strategy and Shandong's pace of building a world-class marine port group, Qingdao is making every effort to promote the construction of an international shipping center with a new attitude and surging motivation.

This strategy is not only related to the economic development of Qingdao and even Shandong, but also affects China's important position in the global shipping landscape. In this change, new productivity, as a key driver of industry transformation, has become an important engine in promoting the construction of Qingdao International Shipping Center.

Amid the vast blue economic wave, Qingdao's port and shipping industry is undergoing profound changes, steadily moving towards the goal of a world-class strong port and embarking on a new journey of becoming a maritime power.

Qingdao Port Qianwan Port Area Automated Wharf

Clear goals and pointed to the world-class international shipping center

To understand the breakthroughs in the construction of Qingdao International Shipping Center in new productivity, we must first understand its construction background.

In fact, an international shipping center is a city concept. It refers to a port city that has hardware facilities such as container hub ports with dense routes, deep-water channels, collection and distribution networks, and has software functions such as finance, trade, and information that serve the shipping industry.

Different from the previous single standard that used only throughput to measure port cities, if a port city wants to become an international shipping center, it must be internationally competitive in international cargo flow, information flow and capital flow. It must be an international logistics center, trade center and financial center. At the same time, modern shipping service industries are gathering and have international competitive advantages in ship maintenance, parts supply, fuel supply, etc.

The world's typical international shipping centers are based on international metropolises with developed maritime and shipping industries. At present, the world's recognized international shipping centers include London, New York, Rotterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.

From a domestic perspective, international shipping centers shoulder important missions in serving national security and economic development, building a new dual-cycle development pattern, high-level opening up and international cooperation, transportation structure adjustment and low-carbon transformation.

The "Outline for Building a Transportation Power" and "Outline for National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning" both propose to build a world-class international shipping center.

As an important central city along the coast of China, Qingdao connects the south to the north, complements the east and west, and connects the land and sea. It is an important gateway hub for Northeast Asia, connecting Japan, South Korea and the Pacific Ocean.

Thanks to its unique geographical advantages, Qingdao Port connects more than 700 ports around the world and has become the largest foreign trade crude oil receiving and unloading port, container trunk port and one of the three major foreign trade iron ore receiving and unloading ports in northern China. The sea-rail combined transportation volume has remained the first in the country for nine consecutive years, and the cargo and container throughput will rank fourth and fifth in the world respectively in 2023.

Looking at the global shipping landscape, Qingdao occupies an important place.

Dongjiakou Port Area Sinopec LNG Receiving Station Wharf

For Qingdao, the port is a core strategic resource for building a modern marine economic development highland. With the goal of accelerating the construction of a world-class marine port, further strengthening the port hub function and playing a greater role in global resource allocation, it is both a development need and an opportunity.

The direction has been set, and how to break the situation is the key. In June this year, Dingge of Qingdao City established a special team for the construction of an international shipping center. Zeng Zanrong, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, and Zhao Haozhi, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor, served as the "double team leaders". Meng Qingbin, Chairman of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, served as the executive team leader, focusing on promoting high-quality development of the port and shipping industry.

In September this year, the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Construction of Qingdao International Shipping Center (2024-2026)" was issued and implemented, clarifying 13 key tasks such as strengthening the planning and guidance of shipping centers, and proposing that by 2026, Qingdao International Shipping Center will achieve initial results. By 2035, Qingdao strives to build a world-class international shipping center.

Standing at the forefront of the development trend of the times and pointing to the world-class international shipping center, this beautiful marine city has no hidden ambitions. This has also pushed the improvement of Qingdao's entire city's energy level to a new stage of development.

Qingdao Port Laogang District Cruise Terminal

Domestic and international logistics are smooth, and the hub level rises

For Qingdao, which thrives on its own, the port is Qingdao's largest resource endowment in building an international shipping center. With its superior geographical location and complete port facilities, Qingdao continues to improve the level of an international shipping hub.

Through policy guidance, Qingdao has added a number of new container routes, especially the "Belt and Road" and RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) advantageous routes. In 2023, Qingdao Port's international transit will increase from 2.85 million TEUs to 3.25 million TEUs, an increase of 14%, continuing to enhance the competitiveness and competitive advantages of Northeast Asia hub ports.

At the same time, Qingdao Port has also deeply cultivated the sea-rail intermodal transport market outside the province, focusing on the markets of Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Jianghuai, adding 10 inland ports and 6 sea-rail intermodal transport lines, further expanding the port hinterland.

At present, Qingdao Port has opened more than 230 routes, reaching more than 700 ports in more than 180 countries and regions around the world. The route density ranks first among northern ports in China, and its cargo throughput and container throughput rank among the top in the world.

Large ocean-going ships leave the terminal and head for the distance, and sea and rail trains are sent to the inland hinterland one after another to promote economic and trade exchanges. The linkage at home and abroad and mutual assistance between the east and west. Qingdao Port on the coast of the Yellow Sea will extend its shipping tentacles inland and extend to the world, forming a huge sea route network that reaches the world.

Qingdao Port Qianwan Port Area Automated Wharf

It is worth mentioning that Qingdao has not only encrypted the route layout in the sea direction, but also added transportation routes in the land and air directions, accelerating the formation of an all-round and multi-level international logistics channel, helping to create a new higher-level interconnection pattern.

In terms of land, there are 14 TIR certificate holder companies in the city. From January to November, the TIR "China-Russia Express Line" shipped a total of 248 vehicles, opening a new TIR international road transportation route "China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan". Within one week, the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) international road transport routes "China·Qingdao-Thailand·Bangkok" and "China·Qingdao-Vietnam·Hanoi" were continuously operated, both of which were national launches.

In the air, Qingdao Airport operates a total of 16 all-cargo routes, reaching domestic and foreign cities such as Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Ezhou, Incheon, Los Angeles, and Toronto. At present, the China-Canada (Toronto) cargo route is the only Canadian all-cargo route operating normally in the northern region of the country. It is an important carrier of the China-Canada e-commerce industry chain and supply chain.

Launch ceremony for the comprehensive upgrade of FedEx Qingdao-US cargo route

In terms of trains, as of November, Qingdao operated 961 China-Europe trains, a year-on-year increase of 18.1%; the number of international operating routes increased to 22, reaching 23 SCO and 54 cities in the countries co-building the Belt and Road Initiative. It is worth mentioning that thanks to the multimodal transport of "one box to the end" and land-sea linkage, Qingdao has successfully ranked among the top ten influential cities in China on the Maritime Silk Road.

To streamline logistics and promote trade, Qingdao accurately grasps the trend of economic globalization, and the pace of opening up is becoming more and more practical. Data shows that in the first three quarters of this year, the added value of Qingdao's logistics industry exceeded 120 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.6%, accounting for more than 10% of GDP. It has become one of the pillar industries that promote the development of the real economy.

With the vigorous development of the logistics industry, a series of exciting news came one after another: In July this year, Qingdao was successfully selected as a "National Integrated Freight Hub Supporting Chain and Strong Chain Support City" and will receive a national award of up to 1 billion yuan in the next three years. Supplementary funds.

In August this year, the 2024 Xinhua Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index report was released, and Qingdao ranked 15th in the comprehensive strength of global shipping center cities...

Facing the future, Qingdao, which is full of vitality, is opening up a new situation in the construction of an international shipping center.

Aerial view of Jiaodong International Airport

High-end shipping services are solved and the overall strength is advanced

Against the background of increasingly fierce global shipping competition, developing the shipping service industry has become the key to enhancing the competitiveness of international shipping centers.

The successful experiences of international shipping centers such as London and Singapore show that developed modern shipping service industries such as shipping finance, shipping insurance, and shipping brokerage are important pillars supporting international shipping centers.

To this end, while promoting the construction of an international shipping center, Qingdao fully grasps new opportunities for a new round of scientific and technological and industrial transformation, actively builds a modern shipping service system, and accelerates the filling of shortcomings in high-end shipping services.

For example, the "Measures to Support the High-Quality Development of the Shipping Service Industry" was promulgated to promote the high-density agglomeration and high-quality development of the port and shipping logistics industry. It has initially formed a shipping logistics industry ecosystem with the port as the core and crew services, ship management, ship transactions, ship finance, and warehousing logistics as the fulcrum, with modern shipping industry, bulk commodity warehousing, comprehensive bonded logistics, cross-border e-commerce logistics, cold chain vertical fields, container stations, and modern shipping industry as clusters;

Continue to increase the scale of ship transactions, improve modern shipping service functions such as ship financing, ship economics, ship insurance, ship evaluation, and ship inspection, build the largest ship trading market in the North, and launch the first online cross-border ship trading business in the North. Carry out ship trading, leasing, certification and other service businesses for 1500 ships;

Comprehensively utilize key technologies for new productivity such as 5G, Beidou, satellite communications, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and computing power to build a modern shipping service informatization support and guarantee platform for Qingdao International Shipping Center and promote the digitalization of transportation industries such as port and shipping. Transformation and upgrade...

Relying on existing industrial advantages, accelerating the convergence of modern shipping elements, continuously extending the service chain, and promoting transformation and upgrading, Qingdao is proceeding from reality and making every effort to promote the construction of an international shipping center.

Qingdao Port Dongjiakou Port Area Crude Oil Terminal

In fact, in addition to industrial agglomeration, the construction of a modern shipping service system is a process of continuous integration. Only by integrating and developing factors such as shipping, trade, and finance can the influence and radiation of international shipping centers be continuously enhanced.

Qingdao, which is well versed in this, relies on the free trade zone to propose a path for the integrated development of shipping, trade and finance--

In the field of shipping, Qingdao has launched models such as "imported crude oil is released first and then inspected","goods are classified and supervised according to storage and transportation status","container imported ships are directly picked up and exported and loaded directly at Hong Kong", achieving an average speed increase of more than 30% in customs clearance across the entire chain of goods; Deepen the application of the tax refund policy at the port of departure and realize the departure from Qingdao Port. More than 24,000 customs declarations from 16 ports of departure that comply with the policy, involving an export value of more than 16 billion yuan. A total of more than 1000 companies have enjoyed policy dividends and advanced tax refunds. Within 5 to 20 days, the sense of policy gain is obvious.

Aiming at the construction of an international shipping center, Qingdao is continuously improving its ability to allocate global resource factors, realizing the industrial agglomeration and cluster development of shipping, trade and financial factors, and creating a dynamic shipping industry ecosystem. This layout will effectively enhance the overall competitiveness of Qingdao International Shipping Center and promote its leading position in the global shipping field.

Qingdao Port Qianwan Port Area Automated Wharf

For Qingdao, although the construction of its international shipping center started late, it is in a state of "coming from behind", injecting strong impetus into Qingdao's construction of a leading modern marine city and an international gateway hub city.

Looking to the future, we have enough confidence to expect that Qingdao, anchored as a world-class international shipping center, will surely strive to become strong all the way, move towards the global forefront, and contribute more important forces in building a maritime power.