JINAN, Nov 24:The 2025 Shandong International Trade and Investment Advisors Conference was successfully held in Jinan. Vice Governor of Shandong Province Song Junji attended the meeting and delivered a speech.
The conference, themed “Gathering Global Business Wisdom to Drive Innovation in Trade and Development,” brought together international advisors and special representatives from over 10 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, Malaysia, and Kenya. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on promoting green and low-carbon high-quality development in Shandong, deepening institutional openness, and building a modern industrial system, offering suggestions to help Shandong become a new hub for high-level opening-up.
During the event, appointment letters were issued to seven newly appointed Shandong International Trade and Investment Advisors, further expanding Shandong’s international “think tank” and enhancing representativeness of the advisory mechanism.
In the exchange session, 15 advisors, including Juergen Schmitz, Member of the International Management Committee, ERGO International AG; CEO of ERGO China; Joe Zhou, President of DSM-firmenich China; and Zhan Jingtao, Vice President of Siemens Ltd., China, delivered speeches on topics such as green transformation of industrial chains, digital trade, and pharmaceutical industry. Six provincial departments—the Foreign Affairs Office, Development and Reform Commission, Science and Technology Department, Industry and Information Technology Department, Commerce Department, and Health Commission—actively responded to the advisors’ suggestions and concerns.
During the conference, Shandong International Trade and Investment Advisors submitted 18 advisory reports, providing diverse international perspectives and strategic pathways for Shandong’s high-quality development across key areas. The reports covered green and low-carbon initiatives, biomedicine, new quality productive forces, the digital economy, and cross-border economic and trade cooperation, with the core goal of helping Shandong build a more resilient and competitive open economic system. These recommendations, grounded in global practices and tailored to Shandong’s realities, aim to explore feasible implementation pathways during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period and support the creation of a new open development hub.
It is worth mentioning that in December 2021, Shandong established the International Trade and Investment Advisors Conference mechanism, appointing renowned international business figures as advisors. Over the past four years, the advisory team has submitted more than 50 reports offering suggestions and strategies in key development areas for Shandong. In the construction of the Green, Low-Carbon, and High-Quality Development Pilot Zone, recommendations such as “Pathways for Industrial Green Transformation” and “Low-Carbon Technology Innovation Systems,” based on international experience, have been incorporated into Shandong’s relevant development plans, providing intellectual support for the continuous decline in energy consumption per unit of GDP and the steady increase in the proportion of green industries. In optimizing the business environment, specific measures proposed by the advisors, such as “Facilitation of Cross-Border Services” and “Internationalization of Intellectual Property Protection,” have promoted the deepening of Shandong’s “streamlining administration, delegating power, and improving regulation” reforms, forming a business environment system aligned with international standards.
The advisory conference mechanism has also facilitated the implementation of trade and investment projects by advisory units in Shandong. Over the past four years, advisors have actively participated in Shandong’s green and low-carbon high-quality development, achieving mutual benefits and reaching a series of cooperation intentions. With strong support from government departments at all levels, some projects have already been implemented: Singapore’s Royal Golden Eagle Group invested 10 billion yuan in Shandong to build the world’s largest lyocell fiber production base; DSM-Firmenich increased its investment in Yantai enterprises, raising its equity stake to 90.5%; Germany’s ERGO advanced additional investment in insurance cooperation projects, with investments in Shandong expected to exceed 3.5 billion yuan; and the Locke Merson (Jinan) Smart Zero-Carbon Factory, jointly established by Siemens and Locke Merson, was designated as a “Zero-Carbon Factory” standard pilot by the Energy Investment Professional Committee of the China Investment Association. It has become the first project in Shandong to receive this honor and has officially been completed and put into operation.
