Introduction
Qingdao Free Trade Zone (QDFTZ) was approved by the State Council on November 19, 1992 and was set up in accord with the International Kyoto Convention. The total scheduled area is 3.8 km2. QDFTZ passed the National Customs Authority's examinations, and went into operations on March 28, 1993.
This special area enjoys preferential policies and an "exemption of import and export licenses, duty-free, bonded free". QDFTZ functions as a center for international trade, import and export processing, bonded warehousing, logistics and distribution, while possessing an "outside the customs, within the border" characteristic.
Qingdao Port is China's fifth largest port in terms of freight turnover and Qingdao Container Port ranks third in China. These are ideal platforms for QDFTZ.
Investment Climate
QDFTZ has attracted investors from more than 40 countries and over 20 provinces from China. Up till April 2004, 2,365 projects were approved, among which 935 were foreign invested projects.
Contracted foreign capital was USD 1.48 billion, and industry output was valued at RMB 10.04 billion (USD 1.21 billion). The sales turnover of logistics and distribution enterprises reached RMB 19.14 billion (USD 2.31 billion), including exports that totaled USD 1.32 billion.
Fortune 500 enterprises such as Itochu, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Iwai, Marubeni, Panasonic, Fussan from Japan, as well as, Lucent, American Aluminum, Chevron Phillips, and Eastman from USA, have already settled in QFTZ.
Some big, domestic corporations like Haier, Hisense, Aucma, Sinotrans and Beijing City Construction Company have also set up their companies dealing in processing, warehousing and international trade in QDFTZ. All the above companies make up a new economic growth engine.
