Trade specialists a boon to local enterprises

Despite a global economic slowdown, Shandong province's new trade facilitation measures have led to a 2.4 percent year-on-year increase in foreign trade in the first half of this year.

"Among the top 10 provinces in foreign trade, Shandong is the only one that had growth in the three areas of trade volume, exports and imports," said Lyu Wei, deputy chief of the Shandong Commerce Bureau.

Statistics from the bureau show the province's foreign trade totaled 714 billion yuan ($107 billion) in the first half of this year. Exports amounted to 417.79 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.7 percent and imports reached 296 billion yuan, up 2 percent.