dzwww.com reporter Han Jingjing reported from Jinan

Recently, the reporter learned from the Department of Commerce of Shandong Province that the Conference for Connecting Shandong with Fortune Global 500 & Deepening Shandong-North America Cooperation will be held in Jinan on September 29. The conference is hosted by the Shandong provincial Party committee and the Shandong provincial government and organized by Department of Commerce of Shandong Province. The theme of the conference is "new pattern, new opportunities and new development". The main leaders of the provincial Party committee and the provincial government will attend the conference.

For a long time, Shandong provincial Party committee and provincial government have been attaching great importance to cooperation with multinational corporations represented by the Fortune Global 500 enterprises. Since 2020, a series of special events such as "Connecting Shandong and the Fortune Global 500 with EU, United States, ASEAN, South Korea and Japan, which have further widened and deepened the communication channels between Shandong and multinational corporations under the new situation, jointly maintained the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, strengthened the confidence of multinational corporations in win-win cooperation with Shandong, and promoted the implementation of a number of key cooperation projects.

It is learned that the preparatory work for the conference is progressing smoothly and will be held in the combination of "online + offline". The offline main venue will be set at Shandong Building in Jinan. The provincial leaders, relevant departments directly under the provincial government and executives of some key enterprises in the province, representatives of Fortune Global 500 American and Canadian enterprises and heads of some American and Canadian multinational companies investing in Shandong will participate in the conference; sub-venues will be set in 16 cities, with the leaders from municipal Party committees and municipal governments, executives of development zones and enterprises, heads of enterprises investing in Shandong will attend the event; about 1,500 representatives from well-known North American business associations, economic promotion institutions, North American Fortune 500 and industry leading enterprises, financial institutions and import and export enterprises will attend the meeting online.

The event has invited Mike Loparco, CEO of EMS (electronic manufacturing services) group of US-based Jabil, Miguel Patricio, CEO of US-based Kraft Heinz, Eric Hansotia, chairman, President and CEO of US-based AGCO, MacEwen, chairman and CEO of Canada-based Ballard Power Systems, and other senior executives of four important well-known multinational companies will conduct exchanges with leaders of Shandong Province via online link. The event has also invited Charles Freeman, senior vice president of Asian affairs of American Chamber of Commerce, and Sarah Kutulakos, executive director and chief operating officer of Canada-China Trade Council, to deliver video speeches. During the event, a number of investment projects will be organized to be signed online in a centralized way. In addition to the guests via online link, the event has also invited nearly 30 heads of the Fortune Global 500 enterprises in North America in China and heads of enterprises investing in Shandong to the main venue, demonstrating Shandong's determination to cooperate with the Fortune Global 500 enterprises.

At present, there are more than 1,400 American and Canadian enterprises investing in the province, with actual use of foreign capital more than US$3 billion. There are 52 North American Fortune Global 500 enterprises in the province, which have invested in 87 projects in Shandong. A number of Shandong enterprises such as Haier, Hisense, Inspur, Weichai, Xiwang and Goertek have also invested in North America and achieved sound development. From January to August 2021, the import and export volume between Shandong and the United States was 203.92 billion yuan, an increase of 54.8%; the import and export volume with Canada was 31.04 billion yuan, an increase of 13.7%, showing a good development trend.