The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) is a major decision made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. At its plenary session on March 4, Chongqing Delegation decided to submit its suggestion to the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress, imploring to increase support for promoting the ILSTC at the national level.

Chongqing Delegation pointed out in its suggestion that more national support for developing the ILSTC helps to accelerate economic and trade exchanges between western regions and the ASEAN under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, promote western regions' participation in rebuilding the global industry chain and supply chain, better implement the Western Development Strategy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and accelerate the integration of Chongqing and western regions into the new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other.

The CPC Central Committee proposed in the 14th Five-Year Plan to implement major projects such as the ILSTC in the new development stage. The Planning Outline for the Construction of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle clearly defines the concrete tasks to develop the ILSTC with joint efforts.

Detailing the suggestion from four aspects

Chongqing Delegation pointed out the positive results in developing the ILSTC thanks to all parties' strong national support and concerted efforts. However, the foundation of infrastructure, industry cultivation and logistics systems remain weak because the ILSTC is still in its early stage. This urgently needs strong national support in planning and finance. Therefore, Chongqing Delegation detailed its suggestion from four aspects.

The first one is to increase national financial support. It is suggested that the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance take the lead to set up investment funds within the central government's budget or special funds from the central government to support major projects, including the ILSTC.

The second one is to accelerate the planning and construction of major infrastructure projects. There are bottlenecks in building the two main channels from Chongqing because the Guang'an-Fuling-Liuzhou Railway and Chongqing-Guiyang High-speed Railway have not been included in the short-term planning. It is suggested that the National Development and Reform Commission and China Railway take the lead to include the two Railways into the 14th Five-Year Plan, and start the preliminary work as soon as possible, striving to start construction at the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan, speeding up the formation of convenient access to the outside world via Liuzhou and Beibu Gulf from Chongqing, fully releasing the cargo transport capacity of Chongqing-Guiyang High-speed Railway, and greatly enhancing the transport capacity of the access to the outside world via Guiyang and Beibu Gulf from Chongqing.

The third one is to support Chongqing in playing its role as the logistics and operation organization center for the ILSTC. It is suggested that the National Development and Reform Commission take the lead, together with the joint efforts of the Ministry of Transport, General Administration of Customs, and China Railway, to improve the inter-ministerial joint meeting system at the national level and to further support Chongqing in playing its role of planning and coordinating as the logistics and operation organization center for the ILSTC by relying on the "13 + 1" inter-provincial consultation and cooperation mechanism at the inter-provincial level.

The fourth one is to support the lower freight for ILSTC trains. It is suggested that China Railway take the lead to extend the freight reduction to 45%, make the freight reduction policy to cover more stations and routes and more kinds of goods, develop a "negative list" of railway transport goods, and unify the classification code of goods through various transporting modes and the classification of dangerous goods.