The coastal city of Yantai plans to further enhance cooperation and exchanges with Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members, according to statements made at the Conference on International Industrial Cooperation and Exchanges with RCEP 2022, which was held in the city on Nov 25.

The conference was held via both online and offline channels, and enterprise representatives from Yantai and RCEP member countries shared their views on deepening cooperation and exchanges under the framework provided by the RCEP agreement.

The RCEP, which came into effect on Jan 1, has facilitated cooperation among its members and offered a new platform for communication among Asian countries.

Since the RCEP took effect, Yantai has taken advantage of the great opportunities brought by the agreement, and has actively expanded two-way trade with RCEP member states, in a bid to strengthen regional industrial chain cooperation.

Meng Xiangdong, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shandong Sub-council, said that the Shandong sub-council will leverage its advantages to provide a high-level platform for RCEP member states to deepen exchanges and cooperation.

As one of the first batch of Chinese cities that opened up to the outside world, Yantai has been committed to advancing high-level opening-up.

Yantai is one of the birthplaces of the modern manufacturing industry and has fostered a number of well-known national brands, such as Changyu Wine Group. Currently, Yantai has cultivated a number of strategic emerging industrial clusters, such as biological medicine and advanced structural materials at the national level, and marine engineering equipment, nuclear power equipment, and aerospace at the provincial level.

The city plans to establish a competitive modern industrial system by speeding up industrial transformation and upgrading, and expediting the replacement of old growth drivers with new ones. It also plans to deepen cooperation with RCEP members in areas such as new-generation information technology, intelligent manufacturing and biomedicine, according to local officials.