Qu Yan, director of Shandong Chamber of Commerce of the United Arab Emirates. [Photo/iqilu.com]

In late 1990s, Qu Yan, director of Shandong Chamber of Commerce of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) resigned and started running his own business. As a visiting client in UAE, he found business opportunity and set up a trading company in May 2002.

At present, the company's main businesses are in trade, logistics and high-end decoration. Qu said that it started to invest in entertainment equipment and cross-border mother-to-child e-commerce in the second half of 2017.

For more than a decade, Qu has been paying attention and supporting the development of his hometown of Shandong. Shandong chamber of UAE has attracted 57 Shandong enterprises, covering industries of project contracting, services outsourcing, project management and decoration.

He noted that in recent years, more and more Shandong enterprises have come to UAE to expand their market. To provide a platform for Shandong's medium-sized and small enterprises, he set up an incubator service center for these enterprises in UAE in 2014.

"The golden honeycomb incubator service center for medium-sized and small enterprises is a comprehensive trading company legally registered with the Ministry of Economy in Dubai, which is situated at the building of Dubai Ministry of Economy. Diversified in business scope, it can arrange business office, market research and promotion, brand building, share overseas warehouse, share marketing center and logistics distribution system, greatly decreasing the cost and the investment risks for medium and small enterprises," he said that the incubator receives enterprises or groups from Shandong to exchange or visit every week. In 2017, it assisted 11 enterprises in Shandong with business operation in Dubai.

Although he has worked and lived abroad for more than a decade, Qu returned to China four to five times every year and kept exchanges and cooperation with the domestic economic market.

Qu suggested that many of Shandong's industries such as modern agriculture, food industry and petrochemical industry can be organized by the relevant governmental departments and led by quality enterprises to set up platform in overseas market and integrate industry resources.

"Shandong's entrepreneurs should strengthen the awareness of innovation and initiative in order to expand emerging markets and provide guarantee for the long-term development of enterprises".

The 2018 Confucian Merchants Conference will be held in Shandong. Qu said that Shandong is a province renowned for culture. The Confucian Merchants Conference is an embodiment of the integration of culture and economy. He expected more global events to be held in Shandong to further expand its influence over foreign countries.