Auto & Transportation

At the beginning of November, Mengsai Station of China Laos Railway in northern Laos opened freight business. So far, the Laos section of the China Laos Railway has opened 7 freight stations, marking the opening of all the freight stations of the China Laos Railway.

The interviewed experts believe that the opening of all China Laos railway freight stations is a microcosm of the continuous new breakthroughs in the infrastructure connectivity construction of the "the Belt and Road". China has always regarded connectivity as a priority area for the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", actively aligned with the infrastructure development plans of all parties, consolidated the foundation for high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", and promoted the common development of international trade of all parties.

Good news of key projects

Recently, in terms of infrastructure connectivity, the construction of the "the Belt and Road" has been reported with many good results: the Yawan high-speed railway jointly constructed by China and Indonesia has been successfully put into trial operation; China and Vietnam agreed to accelerate the negotiation and signing of the cooperation plan between the two governments to jointly build the "the Belt and Road" initiative and the "two corridors and one circle" framework; Under the framework of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, China and Pakistan will accelerate the upgrading and reconstruction of Gwadar Port and No. 1 Railway Trunk Line; At the recent China Singapore bilateral cooperation mechanism meeting, China and Singapore announced important achievements in connectivity, agreed to further deepen the docking of development strategies, and jointly promote the construction of new channels for international land and sea trade

It is worth mentioning that the China Laos railway from Kunming, China to Vientiane, Laos, one of the important projects of the "the Belt and Road", has helped Laos realize the dream of "land connection" since it was opened to traffic last December.

According to the statistics of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., as of November 7, the accumulated freight transported by China Laos Railway has exceeded 10 million tons. Among them, the cross-border freight volume exceeded 1.8 million tons and the value of goods exceeded 12 billion yuan. At present, 25 provinces in China have successively run the China Laos railway international freight trains, and the freight transport has covered Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore and other countries and regions. The transportation of goods has also expanded from fertilizer and department stores in the early days of opening to more than 1200 kinds of electronics, photovoltaic, cold chain fruits, etc.

In addition, as a key project for China and Thailand to jointly build the "the Belt and Road" and Thailand's first standard gauge high-speed railway, the China Thailand Railway is designed and built in accordance with Chinese standards. The first phase of the project will connect Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima, and the second phase of the project will extend to Langkai, an important trade town in northeastern Thailand. It is only a river away from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and will be connected with the China Laos Railway. Kunming can be reached through Boten, Laos, and Boten, China. The construction of the China Thailand Railway is not only of great significance to Thailand, but also of great help to regional connectivity.

Qi Xin, director of the "the Belt and Road" Economic and Trade Cooperation Institute of the 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 "the Belt and Road", actively linked with the infrastructure development plans of all parties, promoted the implementation of a number of cooperation projects related to the joint construction of national economic development and improvement of people's livelihood, improved the level of transportation and information connectivity, and promoted the green transformation of energy infrastructure, We have consolidated the foundation for high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" and promoted common development.

Strongly promote economic and trade cooperation

According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, the turnover of Chinese international trade enterprises in the countries along the "the Belt and Road" from January to September reached 61.8 billion US dollars, up 16.3% year on year, which stopped the decline and returned to the rise, accounting for 57.5% of the total in the same period.

Qi Xin said frankly: "In the context of the epidemic, China's foreign contracted projects have been greatly affected. Although the amount of new contracts signed and the turnover completed by Chinese international trade enterprises in the countries along the line have declined to a certain extent in 2020 and 2021, the enterprises are still facing difficulties, relying on strong infrastructure strength to dredge the national infrastructure blockages and open up the blood and channels of the the Belt and Road construction."

Qi Xin further said that infrastructure connectivity plays a prominent role in promoting economic and trade cooperation along the "the Belt and Road". According to China's "the Belt and Road" Trade and Investment Development Report 2022, the connectivity architecture of "six corridors, six roads, multi countries and multi ports" has been constantly improved, which has played an important foundation and leading role in the construction of the "the Belt and Road" and is conducive to the development of international trade.

Qi Xin, for example, said that in December 2020, the Sukkur Multan section of Pakistan Peshawar Karachi Expressway, the largest transportation infrastructure project of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, was officially opened to traffic, opening the north-south transportation artery in central Pakistan, reducing the opening time of the two places from 11 hours to less than 4 hours, greatly improving the local traffic situation, directly driving the socio-economic development of the areas along the line, and benefiting the Pakistani people. In March this year, one of the major projects in Senegal's revitalization plan, the Fangjuni Bridge in Senegal, was successfully opened to traffic, effectively shortening the north-south travel time in Senegal's coastal areas, reducing the travel time and cost to Gambia and Guinea Bissau, and providing more than 8000 local people with job and training opportunities. The Padma Bridge in Bangladesh took eight years to complete and open to traffic in June this year, connecting 21 districts in the south of Bangladesh with the capital Dhaka, rewriting the history of cross-strait residents' ferry exchanges. As an important part of the Bangladesh China India Myanmar Economic Corridor, it can contribute 1.23 percentage points to Bangladesh's GDP growth, reduce the poverty rate by 0.84 percentage points, and improve the local industrialization speed.

A foreign ministry spokesman said recently that there has been a lot of good news on connectivity between China and neighboring countries. China is willing to work with all parties to promote better alignment between the "the Belt and Road" initiative and national development strategies and regional cooperation initiatives, 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 development of international trade.