Auto & Transportation

At the beginning of November, the Mong Sai Station of the China-Laos Railway in northern Laos started freight business. So far, seven freight stations have been opened on the Laos section of the China-Laos Railway, marking the opening of all freight stations on the China-Laos Railway.

Experts interviewed believe that the opening of all China-Laos railway freight stations is a microcosm of the continuous breakthroughs in infrastructure interconnection under the "Belt and Road Initiative". China has always regarded connectivity as a priority area of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", actively docking the infrastructure development plans of all parties, laying a solid foundation for high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and promoting the common development of international trade among all parties.

The success of key projects is frequent

Recently, in terms of infrastructure interconnection, the construction of the "Belt and Road" can be described as a success story: the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway jointly built by China and Indonesia was successfully put into trial operation; Initiative and "Two Corridors and One Circle" framework docking cooperation plan; under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China and Pakistan will accelerate the promotion of projects such as Gwadar Port and the No. On the meeting, China and New Zealand announced important achievements in the field of connectivity, agreed to further deepen the docking of development strategies, and jointly promote the construction of new international land-sea trade channels...

It is worth mentioning that one of the important projects of the "Belt and Road Initiative" - the China-Laos Railway from Kunming, China to Vientiane, Laos, has helped Laos realize the dream of a "land-linked country" since it opened to traffic last December.

According to statistics from China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., as of November 7, the accumulated cargo transported by the China-Laos Railway exceeded 10 million tons. Among them, the volume of cross-border cargo transportation exceeded 1.8 million tons, and the value of goods exceeded 12 billion yuan. At present, 25 provinces in China have successively launched international freight trains on the China-Laos Railway, and the freight transportation has covered Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore and other countries and regions. The transportation of goods has also expanded from chemical fertilizers and department stores in the initial stage of opening to more than 1,200 types of electronics, photovoltaics, and cold-chain fruits.

In addition, as a key project of the "Belt and Road" jointly built by China and Thailand and Thailand's first standard gauge high-speed railway, the China-Thailand Railway is designed and constructed using Chinese standards. The first phase of the project connects Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima, and the second phase of the project will extend to Thailand Nong Khai, an important border trade town in Northeast China, is just across the river from Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It will be connected with the China-Laos Railway, and Kunming can be reached via Boten in Laos and Mohan in China. The construction of the China-Thailand Railway is not only of great significance to Thailand, but also of great benefit to regional connectivity.

Qi Xin, director of the "Belt and Road" Economic and Trade Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that infrastructure is the cornerstone of connectivity. China has always regarded connectivity as a priority area for the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative, and actively docked the infrastructure development plans of all parties. , Promote the implementation of a number of cooperation projects related to the joint construction of the country's economic development and improvement of people's livelihood, improve the level of transportation and information connectivity, promote the green transformation of energy infrastructure, lay a solid foundation for high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and promote common development.

Vigorously promote economic and trade cooperation

According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, from January to September, the turnover of Chinese international trade enterprises in the countries along the “Belt and Road” was 61.8 billion US dollars, an increase of 16.3% year-on-year, and it has recovered from the decline, accounting for 57.5% of the total in the same period.

Qi Xin said frankly: "Under the background of the epidemic, China's foreign contracted projects have been greatly affected. Although in 2020 and 2021, the value of new contracts signed by Chinese international trade companies and the turnover of completed turnover in countries along the route will decline to a certain extent, companies are still welcome. Overcoming difficulties, relying on strong infrastructure strength to unblock national infrastructure blockages and open up the blood vessels of the 'Belt and Road' construction has never stopped."

Qi Xin further stated that infrastructure interconnection plays a prominent role in promoting the economic and trade cooperation of the "Belt and Road". According to the "China's "Belt and Road" Trade and Investment Development Report 2022", the "six corridors, six roads, multi-country and multi-port" interconnection framework has been continuously improved, which has played an important foundation and leading role for the construction of the "Belt and Road" and is beneficial to the development of international trade.

For example, Qi Xin said that in December 2020, the largest transportation infrastructure project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Sukkur-Multan section of the Peshawar-Karachi Expressway in Pakistan, was officially opened to traffic, opening up the north-south traffic artery in central Pakistan and connecting the two places. The opening time has been shortened from 11 hours to less than 4 hours, which has greatly improved the local traffic conditions, directly promoted the social and economic development of the areas along the route, and benefited the Pakistani people. In March this year, one of the major projects in Senegal's revitalization plan, the Fanggioni Bridge in Senegal, was successfully opened to traffic, which effectively shortened the north-south travel time in coastal areas of Senegal, reduced the time and cost of transportation to Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, and allowed more than 8,000 people Local people get jobs and training opportunities. The Padma Bridge in Bangladesh was completed and opened to traffic in June this year after 8 years. It connects 21 districts in southern Bangladesh with the capital Dhaka, rewriting the history of cross-strait ferry exchanges. It contributed 1.23 percentage points to the country's GDP growth, reduced the poverty rate by 0.84 percentage points, and increased the speed of local industrialization.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a few days ago that there has been a lot of good news in terms of connectivity between China and neighboring countries recently. China is willing to work with all parties to promote better alignment between the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative and the development strategies and regional cooperation initiatives of various countries, and is committed to achieving wider and more convenient connectivity, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results, benefiting people of all countries, and strengthening the Build international trade development.