Synopsis of the article: with institutional innovation at its core, deepening regional port linkages, promoting industry-wide chain innovation, and pioneering, integrated and differentiated exploration around priority areas such as goods clearance facilitation, trade diversification, green low-carbon development, marine industry, have resulted in a number of distinctive institutional innovations that have highlighted the pioneering, leading and service demonstration functions of the national reform open integrated pilot platform。
Institutional innovation is the core mission and distinctive logo of the ftaa。
China's (shandong) free trade pilot zone qingjiang (hereinafter referred to as the qingjiang free trade zone) is firmly committed to its mission of “national testing system and local development” by anchoring the process of “ahead-to-the-front” with institutional innovation at its core, deepening regional port linkages, promoting industrial chain innovation, conducting pioneering, integrated and differentiated exploration around priority areas such as goods clearance facilitation, trade diversification, green low-carbon development, and marine industry, resulting in a number of unique institutional innovations that fully highlight the role of the national open integrated pilot platform for reform in exploring roads, leading and demonstrating services。
(b) to steadily expand systemic openness by first trying to adapt to international trade and economic rules。
The transition to high international standards of economic and trade rules is a major mission of the ftaa. The aoshima free trade area has been active in seizing opportunities for rcep to land and implement high-standard international economic and trade rules such as the cptpp and the epa, within the limits of its powers, taking the lead in breaking through a number of hurdles, promoting the opening of rules, regulations, regulations, standards, etc., and building institutional systems that are linked to the prevailing international rules。
The first model of pre-recognition of intellectual property rights, focusing on intellectual property protection provisions in the context of cptppp, promotes stronger protection of intellectual property rights by transforming the intellectual property rights of imported and exported goods into pre-declaration recognition. Nationwide, it was the first country to issue non-conventional tax certificates to inform commitment norms, and to incorporate “united states certificate of income from certification of small-scale enterprises' qualifications” into the list of immediate closure transactions to inform commitment, with an average cost reduction of 75 per cent for fda certification costs and a reduction in processing time from about 20 working days to one day。
The first new model of “pre-test” for korean food and agricultural products was created, with the establishment of the first south korean accredited “foreign detection agency” and the first domestic laboratory to meet the 511 agricultural disability testing requirements of the republic, with a 20-day reduction in customs clearance and a 50-per-cent reduction in testing costs, and a case of best practice in testing and testing international cooperation mechanisms。
(c) to accelerate the development of domestic and foreign trade integration by first testing industrial integration。
The promotion of internal and external trade integration is a necessary requirement for the construction of a new development landscape and the promotion of high-quality development。
The qingdao free trade area fully utilizes the unique advantages of regional integration, pre-testing and functional overlaps in order to create institutional innovations that will open up market, gateway, regulatory and factor barriers, promote efficient resource allocation, business integration and innovation, and create new patterns of integrated development that are coherent and mutually supportive across the globe. The chain-wide regulation has broken through many points around the whole process of “entry, storage, transfer and sale” of large quantities of goods, the “push-and-export” aggregation of innovative imported goods, the “check-and-check-out” of export boxes, the “check-and-ship-out” mode, the direct conversion of bonded and non-insured goods within the storage area, the “integrated identification, sub-departure” of imported goods, the supervision of many enterprises under the same group as a whole, the support for the amalgamation of bonded imports, general trade and transit goods, and the reduction of the flow of goods from 1. 5 hours to 10 minutes in order to achieve a seamless and efficient flow of internal and external trade。
The resource allocation hub has accelerated the formation of a multifunctional international energy one-stop service base for resource integration, supply chain finance, warehouse logistics, risk management, based on standardized digital warehouse receipts, warehouses, and the first digital platform for commodity spot trading in the country, which will result in online upscaling and visualization of “storage, finance, trading”, with large commodity spot transactions exceeding $300 billion; and the introduction of the country's first major commodity trade industry risk compensation pool, which will provide financing credit of over $5 billion to enterprises, with a growing emphasis on the resource allocation function for large commodities. New modes of trade have grown and expanded, with the first offshore trade stamp exemption in the north free trade zone, the establishment of a “offshore-da” digital testing system, with offshore trade accounting for more than 80 per cent of the province's total for three consecutive years; and full access to barter business processes, with the completion of the first class of the province's “up-and-up” barter “up-to-up” business, with barter trade accounting for more than 90 per cent of the province's total. A new model of tax refunds for overseas warehouses by cross-border electric operators has been pioneered throughout the country, and the cross-border e-commerce test area is in the “first place”。
Try first on green wisdom and lead a new model of low-carbon ecological development。
Ecology is an economy in itself, and its protection is the protection of development forces. The aoshima free trade area is firmly committed to a new concept of development that will promote high-quality economic development in a comprehensive and deep manner, introducing a system of “green free trade” development indicators based on a low-carbon concept at the national level and creating a new model of green low-carbon development that will lead the global free trade pilot zone. The first comprehensive system of evaluation and development based on the concept of “carbon neutrality” was launched at the national level, with the preparation of the first set of indicators for the global fta zone, centred on “green” and entitled, around 12 indicators of 40 dimensions, such as green trade, green port logistics, green eco-environment and green construction, filling the gap in the ftaz low-carbon development indicator system. The country's first-ever green low-carbon registration service, which actively takes on the pilot of the country's deep-scale reforms, has established a directory of guidelines for the registration of low-carbon green operators, which has detailed the green low-carbon industry into seven categories, corresponding to 205 business lines, 474 industry expressions and 1371 self-publication items, providing easier, accurate and standardized registration services for business owners。
The country has pioneered innovative mechanisms for evaluating the carbon footprint of exports, developing the export product carbon footprint evaluation instrument, developing technical guidelines for assessing the carbon footprint of products from high-emission industries, such as rubber tyres, smart household electricity, containers and primary plastics, and providing clear, operational accounting guidelines for enterprises; and establishing a platform for integrated carbon valuation services to assist enterprises in accounting for carbon footprints, managing carbon emissions, cbam compliance declarations and data cross-border protection, avoiding trade risks and fines resulting from non-compliance and effectively addressing trade challenges arising from cbam implementation。
The first test is to optimize service upgrades and create an international business environment。
Business is the subject of innovation and the foundation for development. The aoshima free trade area has been insisting on “business-based”, deepening its search for reforms throughout the life cycle of business, in areas such as access, factor supply, dispute resolution, and building a market, rule of law and internationalized first-class business environment. Innovative reforms have been consolidated and approved, joint administrative approvals, market supervision authorities have taken the lead throughout the country in carrying out a regulatory reform of the register of business owners and registered agent services, building a chain-wide management system, innovative smart management mechanisms, improving the model of synergy between alternative and self-regulatory practices, and filling the policy gap in the country, which rose to a national institutional norm in september 2025 on a pilot basis。
The construction of diversified financing models has led to the innovative introduction of new models for multiple financing operations such as “movables pledge” “credit insurance” “under trade”, the conversion of movables such as crude oil and rubber into effective collateral, the opening of a financing gap for small asset trading enterprises, the formation of a “government + bank + insurance + guarantee” multi-finance system, the reduction of financing costs by over 30 per cent and the improvement of financing efficiency by over 70 per cent。
The establishment of a three-stop service system of “underline entities, online platforms and micro-intelligence micro-programs” to provide a one-stop, full-cycle “accompaniment” service for enterprises in shandong and along the yellow basin from market analysis to operation support, covering the planning of a comprehensive demonstration, maritime justice guarantees, financial law and trade convergence, offshore services and cross-border quality certification。
Open-minded, innovative. The aoshima free trade area will always bear in mind its national strategic mission, adhere to a strategy of institutional innovation and be driven by a first-in-first-in, first-in, first-out, advanced self-trade pilot zone upgrading, a high-quality interface with international high-standard economic and trade rules, a search for institutional innovation in a broader and deeper context, a continuous upgrading of the level of open energy, innovation and industrial capacity, and an effort to reform and open up new highlands in a new era, making a new and greater contribution to the implementation of major national strategies and building modern provinces。
