By Xinyi Li, EDITOR

From June 2 to 4, the Belt and Road Forum for Interconnected Land-Sea Development is held in Chongqing. It is co-sponsored by the Belt and Road International Think Tank Alliance and Chongqing Municipal People’s Government and undertaken by China Center for Contemporary World Studies, International Department, Central Committee of CPC and the Foreign Affairs Office of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government.

About 150 Chinese and foreign guests attended the forum, including government officials such as Hor Nam Hong, Deputy Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Dominique de Villepin, Former Prime Minister of France, Danilo Turk, Former President of Slovenia, and Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda, Former Prime Minister of Tanzania, as well as parties of countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and representatives of think tanks and business circles.

What is the significance?

In this April, the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRFIC) was successfully held in Beijing, yielding fruitful results and opening a new stage of co-building the BRI practically and steadily.

According to the Foreign Affairs Office of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, to implement the outcomes of the 2nd BRFIC, enhance the international community’s understanding of interconnected land-sea development and speed up the construction of New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), the Belt and Road International Think Tank Alliance and Chongqing Municipal People’s Government agreed to jointly hold the Belt and Road Forum for Interconnected Land-Sea Development.

They also decided to invite foreign party leaders, well-known experts and scholars, and business as well as media representatives to share new ideas for the land-sea cooperation development, create new prospects for the integrated development of land-sea connectivity, and join hands to build a bright new future of the BRI.

What are the reasons for site selection?

As an important strategic pillar of the Western Development Strategy and a junction to integrate the BRI with the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Chongqing plays a unique and key role in China’s regional development and opening-up pattern. It enjoys advantages in road, railway, air and water transportation and boasts the Golden Waterway of the Yangtze River, China Railway Express (Chongqing), ILSTC and other logistics channels.

The Foreign Affairs Office of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government introduced that a highlight of Chongqing in promoting the interconnected land-sea development was its efforts to co-building ILSTC.

New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor under the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity (CCI-ILSTC) launched by Chongqing and Singapore in February 2017 is now jointly constructed by Singapore and China’s Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Ningxia, and Shaanxi. It has formed a complementary and coordinated development pattern of international rail-sea intermodal transport, cross-border road transport, and international railway transport. Its operation lines gradually covered Western China, extending to Erenhot northward, and reached southward Indochina Peninsula and Singapore on land as well as 166 ports in 71 countries including Singapore at sea.

By the end of April 2019, the rail-sea intermodal transport from Chongqing to Singapore and the international railway transport from Chongqing to Hanoi have dispatched 968 trains, and Chongqing-ASEAN Highway Regular Lorry has achieved 846 departures. Additionally, a complementary and coordinated operation pattern has formed as trains ran between Lanzhou and Chongqing, between Gansu and Chongqing, between Guangxi and Gansu, between Guizhou and Guangxi, and among Qinghai, Chongqing, Guangxi, and Xinjiang successively.

Besides, Chongqing has also achieved positive results in economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges with countries along the BRI. Moreover, its import-export value with these countries has maintained over RMB 110 billion, up another 34.6% in the first quarter of this year, stimulating an overall growth of 21.9%. Imports and exports to Russia, Saudi Arabia, Poland, and other countries increased by over 40% while those to Iraq increased by 3.8 times. Furthermore, nearly 60 local enterprises in Chongqing have invested overseas in more than 40 industries.

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Source: Chongqing Release