“Thank you so much. Now all face masks have been sold out here. There’s nowhere to buy one. The 100 face masks you send to me are of great help.”

Recently, QIECZ has received the letters of appreciation from several of its international advisors including Dr. Norbert Egger, former first vice mayor of Mannheim. Since March 30, QIECZ has successively sent supplies including disposable surgical masks to its 18 international advisors to give them warmth and encouragement.

As a major new platform for international cooperation, QIECZ has extensive external exchanges and cooperation and has established excellent partnership featuring mutual trust and mutual benefit with international friends, associations and businesses. By far, the zone has signed cooperation agreements with organizations in 16 states/cities/regions in six countries including Germany, UK, Russia, Finland, Poland and South Korea, which has led to economic and trade, social and cultural exchanges and cooperation. Eighty-two companies from 18 countries and regions have established presence in the Zone.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Zone has been paying close attention to the situation oversea and keeping in contact with overseas friends and partners to provide all possible help. After learning about their difficulty in buying medical supplies, QIECZ has contacted eligible companies certified by regulatory authorities to purchase supplies such as disposable surgical masks and protective suits.  

Since the end of March, more than 50 boxes of anti-epidemic supplies labelled in Japanese, German, English and other languages have been shipped to Germany, Japan and other relevant countries. By mid-April, QIECZ has donated 13,600 disposable surgical masks to 18 international advisors, 18 overseas partners including Siempelkamp and 4 institutions and associations in Japan including NRI.

“We are deeply moved by these supplies. The aid is a testament to our profound relationship. The center wishes to play a bigger role in investment promotion and talent recruitment by actively carrying out business promotion, project following-up and other liaison and promotion work in Japan”, written in a letter of thanks from Qingdao (Japan) Business Center to QIECZ after the center received the donated face masks from QIECZ.

Moreover, QIECZ has fully leveraged the strengths of Sino-German United Group, a platform company in the Zone, in global procumbent and sales to maximize its contribution to overseas COVID-19 control. The 120,000 disposable surgical masks it helped buy for Manheim, a sister city of Qingdao in Germany, arrived the destination on April 9.