Qingdao'S Longing For The Sino Korean Free Trade Zone "Qingdao As"

Recently, the Qingdao industrial and commercial center, established in Busan, South Korea, will be set up in June 12th. After the formal signing of the FTA agreement between China and South Korea, following the introduction of a plan of action to further enhance the level of opening up to the outside world, Qingdao is making another effort in strengthening the economic and trade ties with South Korea.

We will see more clearly Qingdao's aspiration for the development opportunities of China South Korea free trade zone.

Qingdao has made frequent efforts to improve its cooperation with South Korea. This is the positioning of Qingdao's role in China and South Korea's construction of a free trade zone. It is a sense of smell and acumen for Qingdao's strategic opportunities in the new economic norm.

And how all these achievements come from Qingdao.

Qingdao's longing

When Qingdao's role in the Sino Korean free trade zone is positioned today, it is necessary for us to sort out the economic and trade history of Qingdao and Korea. This will give us a clearer picture of Qingdao's aspiration for the development opportunities of China South Korea free trade zone.

In 1989, Qingdao top ton electric appliance Co., Ltd. was founded. This is the first Korean enterprise owned by Qingdao and even Shandong province.

In the first year, Qingdao top ton electric appliance Co., Ltd. invested $450 thousand.

From 1989 to the present, Korean capital has been developing in Qingdao for more than 20 years. Not only has the investment project developed from the initial 450 thousand US dollars to 544 million US dollars, but also the investment field has been made from the initial simple manufacturing to the high technology and modern service industry.

The person in charge of the municipal commercial bureau said that since 1989, the development of Korean capital in Qingdao has gone through several stages: before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Korea,

The initial exploration stage for enterprises to invest in Qingdao.

In this stage, Korean investment is mainly invested by small and medium enterprises, most of which are investment in labor intensive export processing trade under clothing of 3 million dollars, shoes and caps, bags, food and so on.

Subsequently, investment projects began to shift from simple labor intensive to capital and technology intensive.

The number of investment enterprises has doubled and doubled, and South Korea has become the largest source of foreign investment in Qingdao.

After the adjustment and recovery period after the Asian financial crisis and the crisis, Korea entered a new development period in the twenty-first Century.

After 2001, cooperation between China and South Korea entered a new stage of larger scale, higher level and wider field.

South Korea's famous large enterprises, large groups and high-tech enterprises have stepped into Qingdao. A large number of well-known enterprises, such as GS essential oil, Pohang iron, Korea steel, and so on in Korea and the world, have invested projects in Qingdao. At the same time, South Korea's new Korea bank, Hannah bank, small and medium enterprise bank, Samsung fire insurance and Korea Industrial Technology Research Institute have settled in Qingdao.

Today, South Korea is the largest source of investment in Qingdao, the second largest trading partner, and Qingdao is the most dense city of the national Korean capital enterprises.

In 2014, the total volume of import and export trade between Qingdao and Korea reached US $9 billion 10 million. As of December 2014, Qingdao absorbed $15 billion 250 million in Korea and 240 million in Qingdao.

In the 30 years of Qingdao's reform and opening up, Korean capital has played an irreplaceable role. The closer economic and trade ties between Qingdao and South Korea have also contributed to the development of Qingdao's cities.

But when China enters the new normal of economic development, Qingdao and other coastal open cities are facing the same problems. The increase of labor costs and the decline of demographic dividend have been difficult to adapt to the capital industry pfer based on the cost advantage initially.

When Qingdao shifts its structure to a more important position, economic development needs new impetus and elements.

The signing of the Sino Korean FTA agreement undoubtedly provides such a foundation and power for Qingdao.

According to the agreement, the liberalization rate of trade in goods is more than 90% of tax and 85% of trade volume in terms of opening level.

The agreement covers 17 fields, including trade in goods, trade in services, investment and rules, including e-commerce, competition policy, government procurement, environment and other "twenty-first Century economic and trade issues".

At the same time, the two sides promised to continue the negotiations on service trade with negative list mode after the signing of the agreement, and to carry out investment negotiations based on the national treatment before admission and the negative list mode.

More crucial, the agreement between China and South Korea on the FTA and the subsequent negotiations on trade in services and investment agreements between China and South Korea will achieve free trade between goods, personnel and capital, further enhance bilateral trade and investment opportunities, enhance endogenous driving force and sustainability of economic growth, and promote economic integration in East Asia and even Asia Pacific. This is an important opportunity for our city to further enhance its economic and trade cooperation with South Korea.

Guo Xiandeng, a two level post of professional and technical post, said Qingdao is in the right position.

China has the advantages of location, economy and geography. The opportunity of China South Korea free trade zone is an excellent historic opportunity for Qingdao's future development.

Superposition effect of 1+1>2

Whether it is the release of action plans or the establishment of the industrial and commercial center, it is the process of Qingdao's further promotion of economic and trade pformation and upgrading of Qingdao and the promotion of Qingdao's international city in further economic and trade relations with South Korea.

According to the plan of action, by 2020, the import and export trade doubled to US $10 billion in 2015, reaching US $20 billion. The total investment in Korea has reached US $20 billion based on the current US $15 billion 250 million, which has doubled to the current 240 million US dollar in South Korea.

The number is boring, and the core content is behind the figures.

Wu Rilong, director of the foreign affairs division of the municipal commercial bureau, told reporters that Qingdao will attract Korean capital to promote pformation and upgrading on the basis of strengthening the high-end industrial cooperation with South Korea.

"Qingdao will focus on the top 100 enterprises and industry leaders in Korea, focusing on automobile, information electronics and fine chemical industry.

In view of the industrial and commercial center, Wu Rilong said that the establishment of the industrial and commercial center has special significance under the background of China South Korea free trade area.

This center is not only a representative office. "What is more important is the platform for economic cooperation."

Wu Rilong said.

Against the backdrop of the construction of China South Korea Free Trade Zone, our city is strengthening its all-round exchanges and cooperation with South Korea in the light of the regional economic cooperation with Busan as a breakthrough.

Among them, especially in the financial field, the two sides have just signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of economic trade and finance, and will build an effective platform to promote capital cooperation and achieve complementary advantages.

Zhao Changji, President of Busan bank Qingdao branch, said that the Bank of Busan will promote the liberalization of capital pfer and improve the efficiency of capital utilization in the future.

The signing of the FTA between China and South Korea has also injected new impetus to the development of Qingdao's service industry. Qingdao will expand its opening to the ROK in ten major fields, including health care, tourism, creative film and television, software outsourcing and vocational education.

Qingdao City Commerce Bureau Service Trade everywhere Gao Fei Xue said that cultural creativity, animation and other industries are the dominant industries in South Korea. Qingdao plans to establish a cultural Free Trade Zone, absorb cultural industries, and promote Qingdao's promotion in the field of service trade.

Because of the establishment of the China South Korea Free Trade Zone, the cooperation between Qingdao and South Korea will develop from manufacturing to service industry, from low end to high end, from single field to multi fields, and promote the pformation and upgrading of Qingdao's industry.

The responsible person of the Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that the most direct impact of the exemption and reduction of tariffs is the reduction of the cost and efficiency of the enterprises. Consumers can directly purchase more abundant, authentic and cheaper overseas products.

What is more critical is not only conducive to the "going out" of Qingdao's dominant enterprises, but also the acquisition of Korea's sales network, brand and R & D center, especially the elimination of unnecessary trade and technical barriers, such as the strict examination and approval of the key areas of public finance and pportation, and so on, so as to realize the rational distribution of Qingdao's investment and industry and the effective allocation of resources.

It also helps to gradually relax domestic policy restrictions on foreign investment, reduce barriers to entry of pnational corporations, and help attract more large-scale foreign investment, such as Korean shipbuilding, steel making and other fields.

Li Guangquan, a professor at the Party School of the municipal Party committee, believes that in addition to the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, the integration of the FTA and the "one belt and one road" strategy will also bring about the superposition effect of 1+1>2 and make Qingdao more effective.

Li Guangquan also said that we should seize the opportunity and dig the "open bonus" of the Sino Korean free trade agreement. Qingdao should make full use of its advantages to speed up the investment promotion of the advantageous projects, and at the same time, we should take advantage of going out and strive for greater policy advantages to create a better business environment.

Enterprise's action

The benefits of the free trade agreement will also be reflected in the enterprises. Reporters learned from the Qingdao customs that according to the actual import data of enterprises in 2014, the first year of the implementation of the FTA between China and South Korea, Shandong will enjoy at least more than 4000 preferential tax concessions for import and export enterprises, of which about more than 1800 enterprises in Qingdao benefit.

According to the Qingdao customs estimates, the first year of the China South Korea FTA implementation, more than 4000 import and export enterprises in Shandong will enjoy tax concessions directly, among which the export enterprises enjoy about 850 million yuan of preferential tax in Korea.

The main export commodities such as products and glass products will be benefited. Since the import of goods in Korea has been reduced to 190 million yuan, some import products such as auto parts, chemical products and machine tools will receive preferential tariff treatment.

On the other hand, Korean enterprises invested in Qingdao have already formed agglomeration effect.

Through more than 20 years of development, these enterprises have gone to the world through many industries such as artificial jewelry, textile and clothing, toys, bags, footwear and so on through "Korean design, Korean technology, and made in Qingdao".

The relevant officials of the Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that they will play a leading role in the construction of the China South Korea free trade zone. Combined with port facilities, foreign trade experience, labor cost advantages, and the larger radiation coverage to the hinterland of Shandong Peninsula, all these factors will help Qingdao play an important role in the construction process of the China South Korea FTA.

With the gradual landing of tariff preferential policies in FTA, China's exports to Korea will rise sharply. Meanwhile, Korea's high-quality consumer goods will also enter China in large numbers. For enterprises, behind the opportunities, it also means greater challenges and pressure of pformation.

Just like China's accession to the WTO, many industries shouted "wolf". But more than 10 years later, we found that the external pressure and impact have promoted the pformation and upgrading of our enterprises and enhanced the competitiveness of enterprises. Many Chinese enterprises, including Qingdao, already have the strength and stage to go out.

Liu Xia, manager of Hisense international marketing company, said that the tariff reduction agreement in the free trade area will definitely help the business, but at the same time, it will also have an impact. Because Korean household appliances are developing rapidly, the fierce competition will be faced in the two markets of China and South Korea, but this will help our enterprises upgrade their products.

In view of the role of enterprises in the FTA, Zhang Jianping, director of the International Economic Cooperation Office of the Foreign Economic Research Institute of the national development and Reform Commission, suggested that many enterprises, including Qingdao enterprises, compete in the international market, need to further understand the various policies and arrangements for the free trade agreement, make good use of the opportunities brought about by the liberalization of trade and investment, enhance the competitiveness of enterprises and promote the development of enterprises.

"According to the statistical analysis of data, the utilization of enterprises is still very low. The main reason is that enterprises do not understand well. In the increasingly globalized world, our enterprises should take the initiative to understand these policies and use them for us.

At the same time, the government departments should also intensify their efforts in formalities, policy publicity and so on, so that the dividends of these trade agreements can be better implemented and achieve our goal of participating in bilateral and multilateral regional trade agreements and promote the better development of our economy.

Zhang Jianping said.