Chongqing- Since this year, the New International Land-sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) has opened 78 new lines, more than five times last year, reaching an all-time high in the corridor's five years of operation, according to the ILSTC Operation Organization Center.

Despite the complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ILSTC achieved steady progress. On November 16, the China-Laos Railway (Dazhou-Vientiane) international freight train was launched. The next day, the ILSTC (Jiuquan-Qinzhou Port-Rotterdam) railway-sea intermodal train opened for the first time.

With Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality as the operation center, and the western provinces and cities as critical nodes, the ILSTC adopts railway, highway, sea transportation, and other transport modes to reach worldwide. 

This year, the ILSTC has expanded the number of new logistics lines between Chongqing, Guizhou, Ningxia, Gansu and Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and other countries. Now, the ILSTC has covered 338 ports in 113 countries and regions.

Expanding corridor routes has driven substantial growth in freight volume and value. In the first three quarters of this year, Chongqing transported 105,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) via ILSTC, up 29% year-on-year, with a value of 19.1 billion yuan (about 2.67 billion U.S. dollars), up 46% year-on-year. 

Logistics costs dropped by 50%

The ILSTC is of great significance to crack the logistics problems in western China and stimulate the opening-up and development of the western region and countries along the route, experts said. 

Many local companies in Chongqing were plagued with long transport times in the past. However, with the support of ILSTC, this kind of logistics problem is readily solved. 

With products regularly exported to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, the Chongqing Yaohua Glass Company said the ILSTC had provided them with an efficient supply chain guarantee. 

"Thanks to the ILSTC, the transportation time has been shortened from the past 32 days to 18 days, and the logistics costs have dropped by 50%," said the head of the Chongqing Yaohua Glass Company. "The company's export value increased 45 times year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year."

Nowadays, all sorts of featured products in western China can enter the international market, becoming the new growth point of foreign trade. Likewise, products from different countries can all arrive quickly and conveniently in Chongqing by multiple modes.

"In recent years, I can really feel that the concept of joint construction and sharing has been more vividly reflected along the corridor," said Liu Wei, head of the ILSTC Operation Organization Center. "More provinces, cities, and regions hope to join the cooperation and construction of the ILSTC, sharing the development opportunities created by the corridor."

According to the Chongqing Port and Logistics Office, Chongqing will further play the role of the organization center to boost ILSTC's development through several aspects, such as integrating the construction of the Belt and Road, exploring the institutional rules' innovation, optimizing the logistics operation and organization mode, and expanding the space for international cooperation.