Qingdao FTZ becoming a big draw for Japanese, Korean enterprises

Kiyoshi Yoneyama, a Japanese businessman, is preparing for the launch of a new e-commerce shopping mall in Qingdao, Shandong province, with his colleagues these days. The new cross-border $45 million business platform is expected to be officially launched in September.

"We will bring quality made-in-Japan products such as cosmetics and daily necessities to China through this platform and even extend the service in countries and regions involved in Belt and Road Initiative," said Yoneyama, who is in charge of the platform, adding that its yearly revenue is projected to reach about 200 million yuan ($29 million).

The platform is named after "Atom", or "Astro Boy", the first Japanese animation introduced in China in the early 1980s, as Yoneyama aims to make the platform play a bigger role in cultural exchanges between the two Asian countries.

Yoneyama's platform is among the first batches of e-commerce programs in the Qingdao-Japan International Business Club, which was officially unveiled in mid-May.

The club, a new platform specially designed for facilitating the potential Japan-related projects, enterprises and business associations entering the Chinese market-as well as Chinese investment in Japan-is located in the Qingdao International Economic Cooperation Zone in the West Coast New Area.

Currently, the club has introduced 24 Japanese enterprises and is negotiating with 21 others. Seven local governments in Japan expressed their cooperative intentions. More than 10 governmental and financial institutions have established strategic cooperative agreements or long-term working mechanism with the club.