On 2 April 2019, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov and Ambassadors of the SCO member countries met with Mr Wang Luming, Secretary of the Weihai City Committee of the Communist Party of China, during a visiting meeting of the SCO Ambassadors Club. They discussed a number of matters regarding expanded trade, economic and cultural-humanitarian cooperation with the city of Weihai.
Wang Luming welcomed the delegation of the SCO Ambassadors Club headed by SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov. During his speech, he informed the members of the SCO delegation about the city's socioeconomic development in great detail. According to experts, Weihai is among the most graphic examples when it comes to the establishment of industrial clusters.
It was also noted that the city's 2018 GDP had totalled 360 billion yuan, with per capita incomes exceeding $20,000.
According to Wang Luming, the city has already established trade and economic contacts with over 200 foreign countries and regions. In all, 396 high-tech companies function there, and 1,014 joint ventures with foreign capital worth $5.8 billion have been established.
As of 2018, six Weihai-based companies and two agencies set up their subsidiaries and offices in SCO member countries and contributed investment worth $14.75 million. Huge cooperation opportunities are opening up in the seafood trade, agricultural produce processing, production of medical equipment and medicine, cultural tourism and professional education.
SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov thanked the Secretary of the Weihai CPC City Committee for the warm reception and noted that many countries of the SCO Family had already established direct contacts with Weihai, and that they continued to expand business as well as cultural ties.
The SCO Secretary-General also noted the city's successes in planting trees and shrubs and expanding the municipal infrastructure, as well as its impressive potential for establishing and expanding cooperation with cities in SCO member states.
Ambassador Xiao Qinghua from the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of European and Central Asian Affairs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to the People's Republic of China Vikram Misri, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the People's Republic of China Masood Khalid, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the People's Republic of China Andrei Denisov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Tajikistan to the People's Republic of China Parviz Davlatzoda, Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the People's Republic of China Yerik Ashimov and Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the People's Republic of China B. Tursunov took part in the meeting.
Weihai city is located on the eastern coast of Shandong Peninsula. It is divided into four administrative areas and zones for mastering state-level cutting-edge technology and technical-economic development, the Lingang technical-economic development zone and a comprehensive duty-free zone. Weihai received the honorary titles of Model Environmental Protection City and City Forest, as well as high ratings as a people-friendly city.
The city operates seven industrial clusters in the area of new-generation information technologies, modern medical equipment and pharmaceutics, intelligent production facilities, production of carbon fibres and composite materials, seafood, sportswear, fishing equipment and medical/health-improvement tourism.
Under the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Weihai has received two Dubai international awards for best practices to improve the living environment and for its contribution to more sustained social, economic and environmentally friendly urbanisation.