On the afternoon of December 29, the Inaugural Ceremony of Qingdao SCO Enterprise Alliance & Uzbek Commodity Exchange (Qingdao) was held at the Conference Center of Municipal Government Offices. Hosted by the Bureau of Commerce, Qingdao and the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA), this event brought together more than 400 enterprises from Qingdao and Uzbekistan online and offline. Xue Qingguo, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Vice Mayor of the Qingdao Municipal People's Government, attended and addressed the ceremony. Liu Xuesong, Deputy Director of the Department of Eurasia Affairs, Ministry of Commerce; Aziz Masutov, Consul General of Uzbekistan in Shanghai; Samatov Nabikhon, Deputy Chairman of the Uzbek Commodity Exchange (UzEx) attended and addresse d the ceremony by video link.

The Qingdao SCO Enterprise Alliance is a non-profit organizing made up of enterprises, industrial associations and chambers of commerce, research institutes and other institutions that are registered in Qingdao, operate legally, have the status of independent legal entities and carry out import & export trade with member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). With the philosophy of "mutual trust, benefit, wind-win cooperation", the alliance is committed to providing its member enterprises with comprehensive services such as policy consultation, business training, market development, legal support, language translation, promotion and international exchange, uniting and mobilizing Qingdao's enterprises, carrying economic and trade cooperation with SCO member states and developing their markets, promoting the building of SCODA Modern Trade Center from multiple dimensions and realizing the integrated development of its member enterprises in Qingdao.

Established by Uzbekistan as one of the world's four major exchanges, UzEx offers enterprises all-round bulk commodity trading services through internationalized processes. It exports Uzbekistan's national commodities such as cotton, non-ferrous metals and chemical fertilizer, and imports commodities needed by Central Asia such as building materials, textile, machinery and electromechanical equipment, home appliances and food. The establishment of UzEx Qingdao will further cement digital trade interaction and exchanges between Uzbekistan and China, and be of great importance to the sustainable regional development of e-commerce.

Since its establishment in 2019, SCODA has made steady progress and achieved initial results. Now a total of more than 6,600 enterprises in Qingdao are in trade with SCO member states, with growth of 1400 than last year. Qingdao reported total imports & exports of 61.57 billion yuan from trade with SCO member states in the first 11 months of 2021, up 24.3% year on year, accounting for 8% of Qingdao's total trade volume. The establishment of the Qingdao SCO Enterprise Alliance and UzEx Qingdao will open a new page and inject new impetus for SCODA and Qingdao's economic and trade cooperation with SCO member states.

At the ceremony, the representatives from UzEx and Asia-Europe International Material Trade Center Co., Ltd. (Qingdao Asia-Europe Trade Service Co., Ltd.) introduced UzEx's functions and trading categories to member enterprises of the Qingdao SCO Enterprise Alliance, and explained the functions and registration of Qingdao Asia-Europe International Material Trade Platform.