NDRC will support five Chinese cities, including Chongqing to carry out demonstration project construction for China Railway Express (CRE) centers, announced the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in early July. As per this move, Chongqing will be developed as one of China's first centers, and NDRC will budget a special fund to support Chongqing's center building.

Across China, there are more than 60 cities that have opened CRE trains. Why can Chongqing get the go-ahead of building a center?

Persistent trailblazer

"Pioneer spirit is the principle followed through by CRE (Yuxinou) since the operation." In recent years, CRE (Yuxinou) has remained pioneering and innovative, cracking a couple of hard nuts and offering a series of applicable measures for China's CRE building, stressed Qi Dan, General Manager of Yuxinou (Chongqing) Logistics Co., Ltd.

"Chongqing is a trailblazer of China's CRE building, not only in terms of routes, destinations, and types of goods but also experiences, models, and practices in the development process." Hu Hongbing, Deputy Director of Chongqing Port and Logistics Office, added that CRE (Yuxinou) would continue to develop and innovate, which is the demand of Chongqing's opening to the outside world and the responsibility of Chongqing as the leading role in CRE's construction.

Move towards high-quality development

Chongqing has been engaging in the high-quality development of CRE in recent years, aiming to change from quantity to quality instead of taking the speed of growth as the sole yardstick.

According to statistics from China Railway, in 2019, CRE's annual converted number of trains of loaded containers was over 1,500, and the value of goods exceeded 50 billion yuan. The two principal data ranked first in China. Since its opening, CRE has ranked first in the country in terms of the converted number of trains of loaded containers accumulated over the years as well as transport value. From January to June 2020, it launched 870 trains, and the value of goods is expected to exceed 37 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of over 50%. After the approval to be built into a marshaling center, the high-quality development of CRE is injected with a further boost.

An important carrier of the national strategy

Since the beginning of this year, CRE has brought its strength in stable and reliable transportation services into full play, opening a green channel for European countries to obtain medical supplies and daily necessities in time, and promoting anti-epidemic cooperation for Central European countries and en route countries, noted Foreign Ministry spokesperson at a regular press briefing in April.

In addition to Chongqing, Chengdu is also among the first five cities to build marshaling centers. Deputy Director Hu saw this is of great significance to the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.