After six years, Qingdao has mentioned the "free trade port" again.

Recently, the official website of Qingdao Municipal Transportation Bureau released the "Medium-term Plan for the Construction of Qingdao International Shipping Center and the Long-term Goals for 2035" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which mentioned the need to build a SCO free trade airport, and further pointed out that "exploring the construction of an internationally renowned and domestically leading free trade port."

"Northern Open Portal" is one of Qingdao's core functional positioning. However, in the local view, as the two major hubs, the land-oriented radiation range of its seaport is highly concentrated in Shandong and Henan provinces, and has a low market share in serving other regions of the Yellow River Basin and insufficient support capacity for the country's regional strategic support; the airport is positioned as a regional aviation hub, and there is a gap compared with international aviation hub cities in terms of international air rights and routes.

Free trade zones, especially free trade ports, are considered to be the most cutting-edge platform carrier for my country's high-level opening up to the outside world. As early as 2018, Qingdao proposed to build a free trade port, which received clear support from Shandong Province. But the following year, after the Qingdao Free Trade Zone was launched, it rarely mentioned related content.

At this time, we will talk about the construction of the free trade port. What is Qingdao’s layout? What are the new goals behind it?

"Re-recommendation" of the free trade port

Going back to 2018, Qingdao enjoyed a highly anticipated treatment.

At that time, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Qingdao Summit was held, making Qingdao the third city after Beijing and Shanghai to hold the SCO Summit. With the help of this grand event, Qingdao won the favorable benefits of the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone, and the slogan of "Hold a good meeting and revitalize a city" spread from here.

Why choose Qingdao? A key factor mentioned by local media is that Qingdao is the only "dual positioning" city in the "Belt and Road": it is not only the main node city of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge Economic Corridor, but also the fulcrum of the Maritime Silk Road.

It is also because of this that Qingdao has given greater imagination space in terms of national opening up and foreign trade.

In early 2018, after the State Council approved the "Overall Plan for the Construction of Shandong's Comprehensive Pilot Zone for the Transformation of New and Old Kinetic Energy", the Shandong Provincial Government clearly stated in the implementation of the plan to fully learn from the pilot experience of the free trade zone reform, support Qingdao to actively create conditions, and explore the construction of a free trade port.

Represented by Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, etc., the Free Trade Port is the special economic functional zone with the highest level of openness in the world. By implementing the free trade port policy, we can share global free trade rights and enhance international competitiveness, and then become a regional and even global trade hub and open highland.

In fact, after the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that "give free trade pilot zones greater reform autonomy and explore the construction of free trade ports", not only Qingdao, but many cities in coastal provinces have taken action, including Shenzhen, Dalian and other places, have put forward similar ideas.

It should be pointed out that at that time, 12 free trade pilot zones in my country had been approved, and Shandong was not listed. With the establishment of the Shandong Free Trade Pilot Zone in August of the following year, the Qingdao area became the largest one, and Qingdao rarely mentioned the creation of a free trade port and other related content at the official level.

To this day, Qingdao Free Trade Zone has been listed for 6 years. Compared with itself, the proportion of foreign trade imports and exports in the city has increased from 16% before approval to 20%, and the total import and export volume ranks first among the three districts in the province. The actual proportion of foreign capital utilization in the city has increased from 4.1% before approval to 9.7%. 96 new investment projects in the Fortune 500 have been introduced, with a total of 190.

Looking at the national perspective, Qingdao still has greater room for improvement. According to the "2024-2025 China Free Trade Pilot Zone Institutional Innovation Index" released by the Comprehensive Research Institute of the Free Trade Zone of Sun Yat-sen University, a total of 57 areas across the country are evaluated around the five dimensions of "trade facilitation", "investment of investment liberalization", "financial reform and innovation", "government function transformation" and "rule of law environment". The results show that the Qingdao Free Trade Zone ranks 19th.

Zeng Gang, director of the Urban Development Institute of East China Normal University, told the theory of urban evolution that whether it is the free trade zone or the free trade port, it is essentially an open platform. Qingdao has a good endowment and is a deep-water port. It is backed by Shandong, a major economic and industrial province, and has open platforms such as free trade zones. Can these advantages be combined and through institutional innovation, it will first become the number one free trade zone in the north.

Building a "free trade airport"?

This time, the "free trade port" is re-mentioned. In the specific expression of the "Plan", the first thing is to build a free trade airport with SCO characteristics - to build an international aviation hub for Japan, South Korea and China Unicom, to improve the energy level of Qingdao Airport hubs, and to form an aviation characteristic network facing Japan, South Korea, China Unicom, and radiate the world.

Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, as the three most influential free trade ports in the world, are also the centers of global aviation. Hong Kong International Airport's cargo and mail throughput has ranked first in the world for many years, and Dubai International Airport's passenger throughput has ranked second in the world, both far higher than their respective port rankings.

Liu Kai, associate professor of the School of Business Administration of Central South University of Finance and Economics and Law and secretary-general of the Hubei Pilot Free Trade Zone Research Institute, told the theory of urban evolution that the establishment of the free trade zone and the free trade port will attract a large number of factors and commodities to gather around the world. "Whether it is high-end talents or high-value-added goods, if you want to achieve rapid flow, only airports can meet this efficiency need."

Secondly, an important function of the Free Trade Port is to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional goods trade to high-end service trade. Air logistics, aviation finance, etc. are representatives of the high-end service industry. A more international large airport is conducive to the development of these high-end industries. Liu Kai added.

Judging from the hardware conditions, Qingdao Jiaodong Airport has met the standards of large international airports.

The new airport was planned to be high standards at the beginning. The first phase of the project built two independently operating parallel runways. The main runway was 3,600 meters long, with a flight level of 4F, with a terminal area of ​​450,000 square meters. There is also room for expansion, which will form a super airport pattern with four runways and three terminals in the future.

However, in terms of passenger and cargo energy levels, Qingdao Jiaodong Airport still has a lot of room for improvement. The 2024 National Civil Transport Airport Production Statistical Bulletin shows that Qingdao Airport’s passenger throughput and cargo and mail throughput rank 20th and 17th respectively in China.

Last year, the Civil Aviation Administration and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of International Aviation Hubs", proposing the "3 7 N" functional system of international aviation hubs. Qingdao is not among the top ten international aviation hubs in the country.

However, with differentiated breakthroughs, Qingdao's location close to Japan and South Korea has made its Japanese and Korean flight density firmly ranked among the top three in the country. Among them, the average daily number of aircraft in South Korea is 44 aircraft in Japan is 14 aircraft in Japan; especially the average daily number of aircraft in the "Seoul Express" is 34 aircraft in the daily number of aircraft, ranking first in the country.

Continue to build a distinctive international route network, Qingdao will also strengthen the construction of SCO air channels and build a national air logistics corridor from Qingdao to SCO through charter flights, flights and other means. Expand the RCEP national route network and actively encrypt routes to core Southeast Asian markets such as Bangkok, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur.

Expand the radiation surface

"In recent years, both the country, Shandong, and Qingdao have put forward many positioning and goals. For example, the northern opening-up portal, the SCO demonstration zone, the Yellow River 'ocean outlet', as well as the free trade port and the international shipping center... Some of these positioning and goals overlap and are nested with each other, but the underlying logic is the same. We must open up cooperation and lead Shandong, and even the entire north to achieve win-win and common development." Zeng Gang said.

Qingdao is also putting pressure on itself. Outwardly, we must accelerate the construction of a new development pattern of mutual promotion of domestic and international dual circulations, strengthen the role of a link between land and sea, connecting domestic and international, synergistically connecting the east, central and western regions, and communicating with the north and south, ensure the smooth, efficient, safe and resilient industrial chain and supply chain of the hinterland, and participate in international cooperation between SCO countries and Northeast Asia on behalf of the country.

Inwardly, we must build a leading city and international portal for high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin and Shandong to build a pilot zone for green, low-carbon and high-quality development, provide comprehensive services for logistics trade facilitation to the region, further reduce the comprehensive cost of regional logistics, and support the opening linkage between the east, central and western regions.

However, judging from the current development status, the "Plan" directly points out that the radiation range of Qingdao's hub needs to be expanded urgently - the land-oriented radiation range of the port is highly concentrated in Shandong and Henan provinces. It has a low market share in serving other regions of the Yellow River Basin and lacks national regional strategic support capabilities. Not only that, in the context of deep adjustment of the global strategic pattern and reconstruction of the industrial chain and supply chain, the sea-oriented hub level is facing challenges.

As a natural port, Qingdao Port has more than 700 ports around the world. It is one of the largest foreign trade crude oil connection and unloading ports in northern my country, container trunk ports and the three major foreign trade iron ore connection and unloading ports in the north. The sea-rail intermodal transport volume has remained the first in the country for ten consecutive years. More than half of the export goods from Henan and Shaanxi go overseas from Qingdao Port.

Continue to smooth the logistics channels, Qingdao plans to accelerate the construction of Jinan-Qinghai Channel, Shandong-Central Channel and coastal channels, and jointly establish a "four horizontal and one vertical" international logistics channel system that is within the province, connected along the Yellow River, and radiates to ASEAN and Europe. At the same time, improve the construction of the inland port system and further expand the layout of inland ports in Central China, North China and Northwest China.

According to Qingdao's vision, it will also build a "airport land port" free trade port structure. The "Plan" mentioned that Qingdao will actively strive to accelerate the implementation of a higher standard "first-line liberalization" and "second-line safe and efficient control" trade supervision system in specific areas jointly set up by air and land, and actively explore and steadily promote the implementation of the policy system of free trade port with Chinese characteristics in the SCO International Aviation Hub.

In Zeng Gang's view, ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin are both national strategies and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. There are also large cities such as Xi'an, Zhengzhou, and Jinan in the basin, but no super city integrates the large cities in the basin to form a joint force. "From the perspective of location advantages and port conditions, Qingdao has this potential."