Nearly 80% of international freight trains in Jiangsu Province are operated by Lianyungang for over 30 years
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the the Belt and Road Initiative. On August 31st, the 8th China Silk Road International Logistics Expo opened in Lianyungang, Jiangsu. 450 enterprises from 23 countries and regions participated in the exhibition, and 17 projects were signed at the conference. According to preliminary statistics, 27 cooperation projects will be signed during the Silk Road Expo, involving multiple industries such as new materials, new energy, high-end equipment, and international logistics.
Lianyungang is a node city of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge Economic Corridor, where the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road intersect. Especially after the "the Belt and Road" initiative was put forward, Lianyungang was identified by the state as the eastern starting point of the international economic cooperation corridor of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge, the Sino Kazakhstan logistics cooperation base and the SCO sea going base. At the same time, Jiangsu took Lianyungang as the strategic fulcrum of the "the Belt and Road" initiative to plan development and focus on support.
In recent years, Lianyungang has actively promoted the construction of China Kazakhstan Logistics Base, SCO Logistics Park and other key projects along the the Belt and Road. As the eastern starting point of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge and an important hub connecting Central Asia and the Pacific Rim, Lianyungang's China Europe and Central Asia freight trains have always been at the forefront of the country. Since the first international freight train was opened nationwide in 1992, Lianyungang has shipped over 2 million TEUs. Jiangsu Province has operated approximately 19000 international freight trains, of which Lianyungang has operated over 15000, accounting for nearly 80% of the total number of trains in the province. In 2022, Lianyungang launched 728 Central Asian freight trains, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%, and the containers in the China Kazakhstan logistics base increased by 20%. The Shanghai Cooperation Logistics Park successfully opened the province's first "China Kyrgyzstan Ukraine" intermodal freight train. In the first half of this year, there were 383 China Europe freight trains operating in Lianyungang, with 127 transit commodity vehicle trains and over 900 shipping vehicles. The number of commodity vehicle trains shipped ranked first among national freight train platforms.
The Silk Road Expo has been successfully held for seven sessions and has initially become a landmark international exhibition for specialization, branding, informatization, and internationalization along the Silk Road Economic Belt in China. In March 2017, it was listed as one of the seven key brand exhibitions in the province by the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Government, promoting logistics development, cooperation, and exchange among more than 50 countries and regions, more than 400 overseas institutions, and more than 4000 exhibitors.
In the first half of this year, with the accelerated rise of trillion level petrochemical industry clusters, industrial landmarks such as new medicine, new materials, and new energy continued to grow. Among the 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Lianyungang had the highest GDP growth rate, at 12.9%. At the same time, Lianyungang is also taking the tenth anniversary of the "the Belt and Road" initiative as a new starting point, building a two-way opening portal from the east to the west with a higher benchmark, and an important fulcrum of the "the Belt and Road" initiative, so as to better play a pivotal role, a supporting role, and a leading and exemplary role in serving the country to build a new development pattern. Recently, Lianyungang Xuzhou Huai'an was selected as one of the 24 comprehensive circulation support cities in China.
During the 14th Five Year Plan period, Lianyungang will operate international logistics channels with high quality and efficiency in accordance with the goal of "ten million TEUs and an Oriental port", forming a high-quality China Europe freight train as the main body, strengthening the business of the China Kyrgyzstan Ukraine and Mongolia Russia freight trains, consolidating the position of the main logistics channel in Central Asia, extending and expanding the business chain of China Europe and Central Asia freight trains, investing in cooperative logistics stations in countries along the mainland bridge, investing and operating overseas warehouses in Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, Mongolia, and Russia, and making every effort to build "two bases and one freight train", and making the new Asia Europe Sea intermodal transportation channel more convenient and smooth. It is reported that the China Europe Railway International Cooperation Forum will also open in Lianyungang in the near future.