International scholars toured the Chongqing Inland International Logistics Hub Exhibition Center on June 16. (Photo/WCICO)

Chongqing - "Chongqing is a strategic bridge between inland China and global markets," said Daniela Perrotta, an expert from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), voicing the common impression of the scholars during their tour of the city's logistics hubs on June 16 as part of the International Symposium on the Global Significance of Chinese Modernization.

Development does not need to follow a single coastal-export model. That was the central takeaway for Perrotta and fellow visitor Esteban Zottele, Vice Director of the Latin American Studies Center at Changzhou University, as they toured the Chongqing Inland International Logistics Hub Exhibition Center and Tuanjiecun Station, a key node of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and China Europe Express.

Perrotta noted that Chongqing's experience shows how strategic state planning, infrastructure investment, and regional integration can support modernization while promoting social inclusion and territorial cohesion, a path forward with direct relevance to the Global South. 

Zottele called the corridor "not just a logistics route but a global trade network," emphasizing that infrastructure here integrates logistics, trade, and industry into "a virtuous economic ecosystem that benefits the entire value chain." He added that Chongqing's experience in developing logistics hubs offers valuable lessons for Latin America on overcoming geographic barriers and reducing transport costs.

Since its launch in 2017, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has expanded its network to cover 581 ports in 127 countries and regions. In 2025, annual freight volume via sea-rail intermodal trains exceeded 1 million TEUs for the first time.

The corridor is reshaping trade between Chongqing and Latin America. In the first 11 months of 2025, Chongqing's imports and exports with the region reached 62.08 billion yuan (about 9.1 billion U.S. dollars), up 22.3 percent year on year. In the first half of 2024, trade with Mexico, Zottele's home country, reached 8.48 billion yuan, up 26.8 percent. 

Latin American cherries, salmon, and wine are flowing in one direction, while Chongqing's electronic information equipment and new energy vehicles are heading the other way.

"Cooperation should not be limited to exporting raw materials and importing industrial goods," Perrotta emphasized. "The real opportunity lies in moving toward higher value-added cooperation, joint research, technological exchange, innovation partnerships, university collaboration, and knowledge co-production. We need partnerships that help build development autonomy and strengthen local capabilities, not only trade volumes."

"Infrastructure cooperation is not an end in itself but a means to achieve more inclusive and sustainable development," Zottele said. "It is strengthening trade and cultural ties between both regions for the mutual benefit of all peoples involved."

The International Symposium on the Global Significance of Chinese Modernization, from June 16 to 18,  focuses on "Mutual Learning and Development of the Global South on Chongqing's Practice of Chinese Modernization." It brought together think tank experts from China, Singapore, Hungary, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia to explore what Chinese modernization offers to Global South countries.