Overview: The service scope of the new western land-sea corridor is expanded to RCEP

Nanning, January 20 (China News Service) -- "Although international trade has been affected by the epidemic, the radiation surface of the sea-rail intermodal train on the new western land-sea corridor was still expanding last year, extending to Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia and other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP). Li Yanqiang, deputy to the Guangxi People's Congress and chairman of the Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group, said on the 20th.

"There are more and more types of cargo transportation, and the distance is getting farther and farther." This is the evaluation of all sectors of society on the new land and sea corridor in the western region. At the fifth session of the 13th People's Congress of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which is being held here, how to expand the service scope of the new western land-sea corridor to RCEP members? It became a topic of concern for delegates.

The new western land-sea corridor is a new land-sea trade corridor built by the western provinces of China in cooperation with Singapore, with Chongqing as the operation center, Guangxi, Guizhou, Gansu and other western provinces as the key nodes, using railways, shipping, highways and other modes of transportation to reach the world in the south through the Beibu Bay of Guangxi.

Lan Tianli, chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, introduced in the "Government Work Report" that in 2021, Guangxi will make a breakthrough in promoting the construction of new land-sea corridors in the western region, and the Beibu Gulf Port has opened a history of 300,000-ton giant ships, the container throughput has exceeded 6 million TEUs, and the sea-rail intermodal train has exceeded 6,000 trains.

"The expansion of the scale of channel logistics has benefited from the continuous improvement of policy measures and the construction of major projects that have been vigorously promoted." Tang Yiang, deputy to the Guangxi People's Congress and director of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission, said that in 2021, Guangxi will continue to improve the level of opening up and cooperation on new land and sea corridors, carry out fee reduction and efficiency improvement actions, accelerate the construction of the main channel railway project, continuously improve the highway network, accelerate the construction of port and shipping facilities, and accelerate the formation of a logistics hub system.

Li Yanqiang said that in 2021, the Beibu Gulf Port completed the cargo throughput of 358 million tons, an increase of 21% year-on-year. This indicates that more and more goods from western China are coming out of Guangxi through the new land-sea corridor in the western region.

With the implementation of the RCEP, Guangxi intends to promote the expansion of the service scope of the new western land-sea corridor to RCEP member countries.

Li Yanqiang told reporters that the Beibu Gulf Port Group will rely on the Beibu Gulf Port to connect the new land and sea corridor in the west, open up the "Central Asia-Beibu Gulf-Southeast Asia" north-south vertical corridor, promote the circulation of materials between China and RCEP members, and accelerate the product sharing of RCEP countries in China's huge market of 1.4 billion people.

At the same time, Beibu Gulf Port Group will also prepare for the establishment of the China-ASEAN Multimodal Transport Alliance, coordinate the construction of new land and sea corridors, and establish a perfect cooperation mechanism with ASEAN ports to achieve the integration and efficient matching of logistics resources.

At this meeting, the government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region also listed the construction of the Pinglu Canal and the Yellow Barrel to Baise Railway as its work plan for this year. Chen Hongqi, deputy to the Guangxi People's Congress and secretary of the party leading group of the Guangxi Department of Transportation, said: "This is the 'project of the century' that Guangxi has been planning for a hundred years, and it is also the bottleneck in the construction of a new land-sea corridor in the western region. After the completion of the above projects, Chengdu, Chongqing and other western Regions of China will have the shortest and most convenient passage to the sea, which is expected to close the ties between Western China and RCEP members. ”

Tang Yiang said that at present, the construction of the new land and sea corridor in the western region has shifted from "laying the foundation" to a new stage of "breaking bottlenecks and developing rapidly." After the RCEP comes into effect, Guangxi will improve the channel transportation capacity and logistics efficiency by promoting the expansion of the Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port and optimizing the organization of cargo transportation, and strive to open more than 7,000 sea-rail intermodal trains this year.

Li Yanqiang introduced that as an international gateway port on the new land-sea corridor in the west, at present, there are 44 foreign trade container routes in beibu gulf port, of which 28 routes connect to RCEP national ports are connected.

It is reported that at present, the stations along the new western land-sea corridor have covered 92 stations in 47 cities in 13 provinces (autonomous regions and cities) in China, transporting more than 600 types of goods and radiating 311 ports in 106 countries and regions on 6 continents, forming a complete ring line of the "Belt and Road" through western China.

In the next step, the service scope of the new western land-sea corridor will be further expanded. Li Yanqiang said that in the future, Guangxi Beibu Gulf Port will vigorously encrypt ASEAN routes, develop African and South American routes, and expand ocean-going routes such as North America, Europe and the Middle East. At the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", there were more than 65 container foreign trade routes. (End)

Source: China News Network