On June 15-16, the SCO Industrial Chain & Supply Chain Forum was held in Qingdao under the theme of “Synergy and Win-Win Chaining up for a New Future of Regional Economic Cooperation”. On September 16, 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that Qingdao will host the SCO Industrial Chain & Supply Chain Forum 2023. The successful holding of this forum is an important initiative of China to promote the deepening of the SCO regional economic cooperation and a concrete practice to echo the unanimous expectation of all parties at the SCO Summit in Samarkand to maintain the stability of the regional industrial chain & supply chain and to enhance the level of industrial development as well as global economic participation of regional countries.
The forum was organized in the form of “1+N”, i.e. an opening ceremony with many supporting activities. There were several important events on the opening ceremony of the SCO Industrial Chain & Supply Chain Forum and 2023 SCO International Investment and Trade Expo, such as the release of the Qingdao Initiative of the SCO Industrial Chain & Supply Chain Forum, the release of Version 2.0 of the China-SCO Comprehensive Service Platform for Local Economic and Trade Cooperation, and the launch of China-SCO Industrial Park Alliance.
Moreover, the Qingdao Initiative of the SCO Industrial Chain & Supply Chain Forum calls for strengthening cooperation in the supply chain within the organization and globally, enhancing the coordination and cooperation within the organization, supporting investment cooperation that is conducive to the stability, security and resilience of the industrial chain & supply chain, etc. The version 2.0 of the China-SCO Comprehensive Service Platform for Local Economic and Trade Cooperation has innovatively integrated the SCO cross-border payment and settlement system, the new cross-border barter trade system, the aviation logistics system, the second-hand car export information management system, and the supply chain information inquiry service system for taxpayers, etc. It is the first to realize cross-border flow of goods and domestic settlement of funds, which will effectively solve the problems such as unsmooth settlement channels, and effectively reduce the comprehensive logistics costs, etc.
As one of the important supporting activities of this forum, the SCO Expo has a total exhibition area of about 44,000 square meters, attracting 330 exhibitors from 34 countries and regions along the SCO and “B&R”, which was the largest exhibition area ever. The expo mainly included the exhibition area of SCO national images, the achievement exhibition area of SCO demonstration areas, the exhibition area of international cooperation theme, the exhibition area of SCO high-quality industries, etc., and there were more than 10,000 kinds imported characteristic goods.
The forum has also held six parallel forums and several industrial matchmaking sessions on industrial internet, logistics and trade, energy cooperation, biomedicine, civil aviation cooperation, digital city and smart ecology, etc., with enterprises as the main body, focusing on the industrial chains with the most complementary advantages and development potential of China’s supply chain cooperation with SCO countries, as well as on the painful points and bottlenecks of industrial chain & supply chain cooperation in this field. It has studied the smooth flowing of links, deepened the docking of supply and demand, and further improved the level of industrial chain cooperation and regional industrial competitiveness.