By 2025, an economical, efficient, intelligent, and convenient New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) will be basically built.

• The transport volume of containers via two significant channels in Chongqing will reach 300,000 TEUs.

• The number of rail-sea multimodal trains, international rail trains, and cross-border highway regular lorries will increase by over 15% annually.

• There will be 50 passenger and freight routes connecting countries (regions) along ILSTC.

• Three demonstration zones for industrial cooperation with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be built.

By 2035, ILSTC will be built entirely.

• Logistics of ILSTC will achieve large-scale and intensive operations.

• The operation organization and customs clearance facilitation will reach a world-class level.

• Logistics costs will fall substantially.

• ILSTC's role in helping Chongqing to emerge as an exemplary city of opening-up in inland China will be fully shown.

• A new pattern will form, in which Chongqing will lead the coordinated regional development and drive the development of the western region

Chongqing- According to the Port and Logistics Office of Chongqing Municipal People's Government on April 8, the Implementation Plan of Chongqing for Boosting Construction of ILSTC (Implementation Plan for short) has been officially released.

The Master Plan of Western New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, which was officially issued by the National Development and Reform Commission last August, identified ILSTC as China's national strategy. As one of the initiators and advocators of ILSTC, Chongqing formulated the Implementation Plan according to the national plan and based on its actual situation.

The Implementation Plan defines the overall objectives: first, an economical, efficient, intelligent, and convenient ILSTC will be basically built by 2025; ILSTC will be entirely built by 2035. When the first stage ends, the transport volume of containers via two significant channels in Chongqing will reach 300,000 TEUs; the number of rail-sea multimodal trains, international rail trains and cross-border highway regular lorries will increase by over 15% annually; there will be 50 passenger and freight routes connecting countries (regions) along ILSTC; three demonstration zones for industrial cooperation with ASEAN member states will be built.

According to the Implementation Plan, Chongqing needs to strengthen the construction of the logistics and operation organization center of ILSTC, intensify its capacity building and improve its logistics service efficiency. The Implementation Plan also requires the city to promote the integrated development of ILSTC and the regional economy, improve the level of opening up to the outside world and strengthen the policy guarantee and the organization and implementation. In this way, the city could speed up the construction of ILSTC, give full play to the "three roles," and promote the formation of an opening-up pattern with links running eastward and westward, across land and oversea.

Official interpretation

As Director of the Port and Logistics Office of Chongqing Municipal People's Government, Nie Hongyan interpreted the background, main objectives, and priorities of the Implementation Plan on April 8.

"The Implementation Plan sets short-term, medium and long-term development objectives, specifies key tasks, division of responsibilities and safeguard measures, and provides guidelines for the next step of ILSTC construction," said Nie.

Chongqing is one of the initiators, facilitators, and doers of ILSTC so that its sister provinces, autonomous regions, and cities in West China, the industry, and all sectors of society are also keeping an eye on the introduction of its implementation plan.

How to make it? Three key tasks and carry them out one by one

"How to build the operation organization center, how to create a new channel deeply integrating transport, logistics, trade, and industries, and how to establish a mechanism for inter-provincial consultation and cooperation? They are three major tasks assigned to Chongqing by the state." Nie said that the Implementation Plan gives the answers to the above questions.

The Implementation Plan makes arrangements for the operation organization center from both macro and micro perspectives. In terms of the former, Chongqing should build inland international logistics hubs and port highlands by virtue of its unique position advantages, so as to promote the in-depth integration of transport, logistics, trade, and industries and activate regional flows of people, goods, capital, and information. In this way, it could finally form the channel economy and hub economy of a certain scale, radiate the surrounding provinces and autonomous regions and take the lead in achieving coordinated regional development.

Specifically speaking, Chongqing is requested to innovate the channel's construction and operation mechanism, promote the linkage and sharing of the channel's resources, build a multimodal transport system and establish the western emergency logistics organization and guarantee system. It also needs to ensure the transport safety of the channel, cooperate in the innovation of the channel-related policies, and complete other tasks.

From the micro perspective, Chongqing Municipal People's Government needs to set up a logistics and operation organization center of the channel as the entity to coordinate the channel's construction work.

In terms of building a new channel that deeply integrates transport, logistics, trade, and industries, the Implementation Plan mainly focuses on four aspects. The first is to intensify the capacity building of the channel; the second is to improve its logistics service efficiency; the third is to promote the integrated development of the channel and the regional economy; the last is to improve the level of opening up to the outside world and give full play to the effect of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity and the role of an open platform for cooperation.

"In the near future, Chongqing is going to stage the first session of the inter-provincial consultative joint conference to clarify the organization system and operation rules, and study and discuss major transregional issues," said Nie.

How to innovate? Highlight the theme of high-quality development

First, the city needs innovation-led development. Chongqing will build a transregional public operation platform company and cooperate with provinces, autonomous regions, and cities along ILSTC in the realization of the coordinated operation of the channel. "It is the innovation and upgrading of the operation mode of China Railway Express by Chongqing, aiming to promote further integration of resources, optimize the allocation of resources and realize the optimal overall effect," said Nie.

Besides, the city needs coordinated development. By virtue of ILSTC, Chongqing plans to develop the channel economy and join hands with provinces, autonomous regions, and cities along the channel to build a number of industrial transfer cooperation parks, strategic emerging industrial bases, and international economic and trade cooperation parks. It is also slated to develop the hub economy through national logistics hubs of the land port, port, and airport types.

The Implementation Plan makes demands of opening-up and development, significant attributes of ILSTC. For example, Chongqing will promote the construction of overseas distribution centers, overseas warehouses, and container return points in Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries and build a node network of the international logistics supply chain.

Joint building and sharing are some of the cardinal principles of ILSTC. To follow this principle, Chongqing is going to set up a container sharing and allocation system, erect a container dispatching and management center, which is available to other users, promote the exchange and sharing of railway and sea containers, and solve the problem of insufficient container resources in inland areas.

Expert's voice

Li Muyuan, Executive Vice President of China Container Industry Association, said, "Focusing on cooperation in the western region and international connectivity, the Implementation Plan makes an overall plan for Chongqing to construct ILSTC in the next 5-15 years."

"It can be seen from the Implementation Plan that, in the process of constructing the operation organization center, Chongqing mainly focuses on promoting the linkage and sharing of resources." Li gave an example that the Implementation Plan makes it clear that, with the development of the channel, Chongqing and Sichuan are trying to establish a unified allocation center containing shipping containers, railway containers and containers of the owner of the cargo, and trying to promote the mutual use of railway containers and shipping ones. "The deepening of the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle will gradually perfect the multi-point circulation system of container allocation in the western inland areas."