Chongqing - As the Chongqing delegation proposed the joint construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) at a higher level during the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), Huang Chengfeng, Vice President of Chongqing Jiaotong University, saw the great potential behind this initiative.

Benefitting from its national strategic positioning, Chongqing serves as the operation and organization center of the ILSTC, as well as a pioneer of opening-up in inland China.

Huang saw opportunities for Chongqing in transportation and commerce. "Land transportation has played a more prominent role in modern transportation," he said. "The ILSTC is the land corridor connecting Europe, Central Asia, China, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, while Chongqing is the most significant transition point."

Since the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become China's largest trading partner, economic cooperation will become closer with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries.  

"The ILSTC is the main corridor to boost foreign trade," said Huang. "If the intelligent transportation manufacturing and electronic information industry is integrated into the ILSTC, it will further expand Chongqing's modern industrial system and boost the economy."

An intelligent network connection is vital to the ILSTC

Combining the suggestions proposed by the Chongqing delegation, Huang believed China's intelligent connected transportation has a broader prospect, which can cultivate multiple trillion-level markets for modern industrial highlands, including new industries like transportation services, electronics, and information. 

Although Chongqing has made progress in constructing the smart city in recent years, Huang said, the corridor is still at the initial connectivity stage with low technological and institutional development levels. 

Huang said this could be solved by building a pilot international economic belt with new corridors and industries and developing intelligent connected transportation fields. Chongqing should further expand intelligent transportation industries and establish advantageous enterprise clusters and research and development (R&D) institutes to empower the ILSTC.

"The ILSTC is a big corridor of international trade and high-technology integration," said Huang. "Domestic and international technologies like intelligent network connection is vital to intelligence level of ILSTC."

Additionally, it is necessary to expand the ILSTC coordination network, reduce logistics costs, and enhance the competitiveness of the product along the route. Huang suggested building railway lines between major industrial parks and economic entities.

Similarly, this can increase synergy with other provinces like Guangxi in expanding ports, shipping capacity, and intelligent industries. 

Introducing financial support policies to expand the ILSTC

At this year's China's Two Sessions, the Chongqing delegation submitted the suggestion for jointly building the ILSTC at a higher level. 

The delegation proposed to strengthen the coordination mechanism at the national level, support the construction of major infrastructure projects, and introduce active fiscal and financial support policies on ILSTC.

Specifically, eliminating corridor bottlenecks and constructing major infrastructure projects are important, which involve building a series of railways and airports, such as constructing Chongqing's new airport for a cargo air corridor. 

Besides, the delegation suggested introducing active fiscal, tax, and financial support policies to ensure the quality and expansion of ILSTC. This includes the issuance of special bonds for ILSTC projects without local debt quota and the establishment of special financial funds and national budget funds for the ILSTC.

Chongqing can also restructure and set up an international commercial bank for ILSTC and pilot some policies, such as tax rebates at the land port of departure. 

(Cai Jiajia, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)