Aerial photo taken on July 29, 2022 shows an outbound freight train at a railway freight center in Wuzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Photo: Xinhua
The new western land-sea corridor has become a vivid example of China's efforts to expand high-level opening-up to the outside world, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday, while commenting on the milestone of over 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers being transported via the passage this year.
From a single train route to a whole network, the multimodal transport of the new western land-sea corridor now covers 72 cities in 18 provinces, regions and municipalities in China and carries cargo to 514 ports of 123 countries and regions worldwide, Wang told a regular press briefing on Friday.
In 2023, the sea-rail combined transport carried 860,000 TEUs of goods, up by 14 percent year-on-year. High-quality agricultural products from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries have been brought into the Chinese market and reached the tables of Chinese consumers. China's new energy products, new material products and electromechanical products have been transported overseas, giving a strong boost to the economic growth of ASEAN countries, Wang noted.
Industry insiders said the corridor slashed the time required for goods from ASEAN to reach China's western provinces by about 10 days to around 20 days.
Wang further pointed out the significance of the corridor's construction in facilitating an opening-up paradigm that connects China and the world as well as the eastern and western regions of the nation.
Meanwhile, many provinces along the corridor are rolling out policy measures to make the new western land-sea corridor an open corridor for development of strategic importance with better connectivity both at home and beyond, according to Wang.
The new western land-sea corridor is located in China's western hinterland, connecting the silk road economic belt and the 21st century maritime silk road and supporting the high-standard opening up and the building of a new development paradigm in western China. In 2019, the Chinese government rolled out the master plan for the new western land-sea corridor.
"We are confident that the new western land-sea corridor will continue to reach further, support bigger trade and bolster deeper industrial cooperation and become an international economic corridor with robust impetus," Wang said.
外交部发言人汪文斌周五表示，新的西部陆海走廊已成为中国努力扩大高水平对外开放的生动例子，同时评论了今年通过该信道运输超过30万个20英尺当量集装箱（TEU）的里程碑。 从单一的火车路线到整个网络，新的西部陆海走廊的多式联运现在覆盖了中国18个省，地区和直辖市的72个城市，并将货物运送到全球123个国家和地区的514个港口，汪文斌在周五的例行新闻发布会上说。
2023年，海铁联运货物86万标准箱，同比增长14%。来自越南、柬埔寨、泰国、马来西亚、印度尼西亚等国家的优质农产品被带入中国市场，进入中国消费者的餐桌。王毅指出，中国的新能源产品、新材料产品和机电产品已运往海外，有力地推动了东盟国家的经济增长。
业内人士表示，该走廊将东盟货物到达中国西部省份所需的时间缩短了约10天至20天左右。 王毅进一步指出，该走廊的建设对于促进中国与世界以及中国东西部的对外开放模式具有重要意义。 与此同时，汪晖表示，该走廊沿线的许多省份正在推出政策措施，使新的西部陆海走廊成为具有战略意义的发展开放走廊，在国内外都有更好的连通性。
西部陆海新廊位于中国西部腹地，连接丝绸之路经济带和21世纪海上丝绸之路，支撑着西部高水平对外开放和新发展格局建设。2019年，中国政府推出了新的西部陆海走廊总体规划。
“我们相信，新的西部陆海走廊将继续延伸得更远，支持更大的贸易，加强更深层次的工业合作，成为具有强大动力的国际经济走廊，”汪文斌说。
