Qingdao, Shandong province, is promoting industry standardization to regulate various sectors ranging from manufacturing and e-commerce to services.

The coastal city's progress in standardization dates back to 2006, when local officials said success belongs to whoever has the right to standardize the industry.

Companies and enterprises in Qingdao need to keep a close eye on international standards and become the makers of such standards, local officials said.

The city's government formulated and revised 112 service standards, covering areas ranging from logistics and taxis to elevators in 2013 and 2014. The city has been striving to expand its related work into a wider range of areas since 2015.

For example, Qingdao has started to regulate its cross-border e-commerce business since 2016. Crossborder e-commerce is a priority industry for the Qingdao Qianwan Free Trade Port Zone, which focuses on importing goods and cross-border trade. While bringing economic growth, it also increased demand for commodity monitoring, credit management, customs clearance and currency settlement.

The port zone is developing a pilot project for cross-border e-commerce service standardization in Shandong province, covering the 15 months from October 2016 to December 2017.

The process covers four stages: setting a clear goal and formulating plans, building up complete and functional systems and standards, promoting the standards, and then examining and improving upon practice and experience.

With complete standards to regulate operation, the Qianwan area is expected to attract more than 200 e-commerce businesses to settle and expand in the area.

The progress of standardization also covers the city's manufacturing sector. One leading example is Qingdao Fangzheng Machinery Group, a machinery enterprise that focuses on automotive air suspension, axles and automobile parts.

Low-tier companies sell products, medium-tier companies sell technology, but top-tier companies sell standards, said a representative from the company, adding that the company needs to catch up with the world and build up awareness for standards, learning from the standards used in advanced countries and cities.

The representative said under the trend of globalization and the Belt and Road Initiative, Qingdao Fangzheng Machinery has set four goals in order to enhance its global competitiveness: standardizing research and development, manufacturing, smart manufacturing and customer service.

The representative said the company is entering the era of Industrial 4.0: smart manufacturing will become an inevitable trend in the future, and pre-sale and after-sale customer service is crucial for the company's marketing.

Qingdao is hosting the first forum on international standardization from June 27 to 29. Echoing the 39th International Organization for Standardization General Assembly, the forum hopes to promote the exchange and application of international standardization.

It will also encourage dialogues between governments and other involved parties for the benefit of the economy, society and environment, the event's organizers said.

renxiaojin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/27/2017 page12)