The 2020 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) International Investment and Trade Expo will be held from Oct. 16 to 18 at the China-SCO Demonstration Zone for Local Economic and Trade Cooperation in Jiaozhou, a county-level city of Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong province, an official announced on Friday at a promotional activity in Beijing.

With the theme of "share opportunities for open development," the expo will showcase the economic development and trade of SCO countries, said Xiang Zhiqiang, deputy head of the demonstration zone's management committee.

More than 600 companies have been invited to exhibit agricultural produce, home appliances, as well as cultural industries such as tourist packages, and other products, Xiang said.

"In addition to SCO-related countries, we've also invited companies from Japan and South Korea to promote economic cooperation and trade, and better leverage the role of the demonstration zone as a 'sea access' to Asia-Pacific markets," he said.

A virtual exhibition will be available for companies that cannot attend the live exhibition, and the online show will remain open throughout as a platform for SCO countries to deepen exchanges and trade cooperation, Xiang added.

In last October, China's Ministry of Commerce rolled out a general plan which listed four major tasks to build the demonstration zone, namely, forging a regional logistics center; building a modern trade center; promoting production capacity cooperation and constructing a center for two-way investment; and building a business, tourism, and cultural exchange center.

During the promotional activity, Liu Jianjun, secretary of the Communist Party of China Jiaozhou Municipal Committee, explained the progress achieved in developing the demonstration zone over the past year.

The SCO multi-modal transportation center currently operates 17 regular rail freight service lines connecting SCO countries, and the "SCO railway express" was launched on April 27, Liu said.

Measures have been introduced to establish platforms for international trade, develop cross-border e-commerce, increase trade in goods, and facilitate trade in services, he added. "In the first half of this year, Qingdao's foreign trade volume with SCO-related countries reached 22.1 billion yuan."

In terms of investment, Liu said Qingdao has formed an economic partnership with 21 cities, provinces, states, or institutions in SCO-related countries, and companies from countries including Russia, Tajikistan, and Cambodia have set up branches at the demonstration zone.

Since opening, the demonstration zone has received 76 delegations from SCO countries, and efforts are being made to promote cooperation between research institutes in Qingdao and Russia, Liu said.

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