As China's gateway to Northeast Asia, Shandong serves as a core strategic pivot for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative and fostering smooth domestic and international dual circulation.

Given this strategic positioning, Shandong has aligned its opening-up policy with national plans for institutional opening-up, upgraded connectivity and high-quality BRI cooperation throughout the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30).

Endowed with distinctive geographic advantages — facing South Korea and Japan across the sea and serving as a vital link to Eurasia — the province is building a land-sea coordinated hub that integrates domestic and overseas markets to advance a high standard of opening-up.

To lay a solid foundation for its next-stage opening-up layout, Shandong has delivered stellar foreign trade results over the past five years. The province's total import and export volume surged from 2.2 trillion yuan ($324.2 billion) in 2020 to 3.5 trillion yuan in 2025.

Building on this growth momentum, Shandong will further expand international trade in the 15th Five-Year Plan period to support the national drive to develop a powerful trading nation. It will deepen economic partnerships with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership members and economies involved in the BRI, while utilizing untapped market potential across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

To deliver on these external cooperation goals, Shandong relies on two flagship national opening-up platforms, namely the China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area, which act as twin engines powering the province's opening-up drive.

Starting with the Pilot Free Trade Zone, its three subzones in Qingdao, Yantai and Jinan have rolled out more than 100 replicable reform policies tailored to local industrial strengths, covering marine economy, biomedicine, cross-border service trade and advanced manufacturing.

The China-SCO demonstration area advances four core functions — international logistics, modern trade, two-way investment and people-to-people exchanges — to deepen multilayered cooperation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states.

Beyond institutional platforms, integrated land-sea connectivity constitutes another critical pillar of Shandong's opening-up framework.

Boasting a world-renowned cluster of modern ports with robust overall throughput, Shandong runs ocean container routes reaching more than 180 countries and regions, fully covering BRI participants, RCEP signatories and emerging global markets.

In addition to maritime shipping, China-Europe freight trains represent a core channel for Shandong's westward opening-up. Operated by Shandong Hi-Speed Qilu Eurasia Railway Logistics, these trains have completed more than 16,000 trips, ranking among the country's top fleets in route diversity and operational stability.

Covering 57 international lines, the trains travel to 60 major cities across 28 foreign countries, forming a multidimensional logistics corridor that links South Korea and Japan to the east, Eurasia to the west, Mongolia and Russia to the north, and ASEAN nations to the south.

With robust logistics infrastructure in place, Shandong further advances regional economic collaboration, especially in Northeast Asia. Capitalizing on RCEP policy dividends, the province has launched comprehensive service platforms to strengthen industrial and trade linkages with Japan and South Korea.

It has also widely promoted the "cross-border e-commerce plus overseas warehouse" model and launched the "10,000 enterprises go global, Shandong trade links the world" campaign to empower small and medium-sized foreign trade companies.

Aside from boosting outbound trade, Shandong has also made major strides in attracting inbound investment during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25). The province streamlined foreign investment approval procedures and fully implemented the negative list for foreign investment access.

Over the five years, it attracted $82.79 billion of actual utilized foreign investment, drawing 236 Fortune Global 500 companies to launch 947 industrial projects locally. Global industrial giants, including Germany's ZF Friedrichshafen AG and South Korea's Hyundai Motor, continue to expand production capacity and set up research centers in Shandong.

High-profile events such as the Qingdao Multinationals Summit and China-Japan-Korea Industries Expo are held regularly, bringing in large foreign-funded industrial projects and accelerating industrial transformation across Shandong.

Looking ahead, Shandong officials said it will fully implement national opening-up strategies and take the lead in making breakthroughs in digital trade, opening-up of the service sector and marine industrial reform.