STORY: China building SCO demonstration area into new Belt and Road cooperation platform
DATELINE: Oct. 11, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:00
LOCATION: QINGDAO, China
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the SCO demonstration area
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): ZHOU SHICHAO, Cross-border e-commerce supervision department, Jiaozhou Customs, Qingdao
3. various of freight trains
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Russian): SERGEY MANASSARIAN, Armenian Ambassador to China 
5. various of the SCO demonstration area

STORYLINE:

The China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA) in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao has become a new promising platform for Belt and Road cooperation.

The demonstration area was proposed to be built in June 2018. It has since grown into an important link in the international industrial, supply and trade chains, boosting the economic and trade cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members.

Apart from sea, air, and road transport, the demonstration area operates 31 international freight train routes, reaching 54 cities in 23 Belt and Road partner countries.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): ZHOU SHICHAO, Cross-border e-commerce supervision department, Jiaozhou Customs, Qingdao
"Jiaozhou Customs has established an exclusive window for China-Europe freight train service to handle customs clearance procedures such as declaration, inspection, and release, and promoted paperless declaration and rapid railway clearance, ensuring smooth operation of the freight trains."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Russian): SERGEY MANASSARIAN, Armenian Ambassador to China
"We very much look forward to concrete cooperation outcomes, especially as strengthening the logistics chain has become crucial under current challenging context."

The demonstration area has also introduced or nurtured 10 trading platforms to link more than 2,000 trading companies. Among them is an international expo center, which hosted the SCO Expo in June this year.

The expo attracted 330 enterprises and institutions from 34 countries and regions, displaying more than 10,000 kinds of specialty commodities from SCO countries.

Thanks to a slew of measures, the area's trade with SCO countries surged to 8.1 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022 from 850 million yuan in 2019.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Qingdao, China.
(XHTV)