The Chang’an Express attained three No.1 spots in China
The Completion of Operating over 1,000 Trains in 2018 of China Railway Express (Xi’an) was celebrated in the Xi’an International Trade & Logistics Park on the afternoon of October 30th.
Hu Heping, the secretary of the CPC Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, attended the ceremony and declared that the China Railway Express – the Chang’an Express drove off from Xi’an to Riga. Governor Liu Guozhong and Fu Gangfeng, the general manager of China Merchants Group, jointly unveiled the nameplate of “China Silk Road Merchants Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd”. Liang Gui, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee and the Executive Vice-Governor of Shaanxi hosted the ceremony. Wang Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee and the secretary of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Party Committee, and Alexey, the president of JSC United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Rail Alliance (JSC UTLC ERA), delivered their speeches separately. The Vice-Governor Wei Zengjun also attended the ceremony.
Hu Heping and Liu Guozhong met with their guests at home and aboard before the beginning of the celebration. Hu Heping pointed out that Shaanxi is the starting point of the ancient Silk Road and the gateway for the opening-up of China since ancient times. With the in-depth implementation of the Belt and Road construction by the Chinese government, Shaanxi has once again stood on the forefront of China’s opening-up to the outside world, creating favorable conditions to give full play to its advantages and bring about a new phase of all-round two-way opening up with links running eastward and westward over land and through air. Foreign and domestic enterprises are expected to invest, co-operate, develop the pivot economy, the gateway economy and the flow economy in Shaanxi, and build partnerships to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Fu Gangfeng said that as the important hub of the Belt and Road initiative, Shaanxi is anticipated to carry out multi-field and all-round exchange and cooperation and achieve better development for the enterprises based on its regional and gateway advantages.
With Hu Heping and Liu Guozhong as the witnesses, the project agreements were signed by the Administrative Committee of the Xi’an International Trade & Logistics Park, Sinotrans Limited, China Merchants Shekou Holdings, JSC United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Rail Alliance (JSC UTLC ERA), JD. Group, MIA Group and Greenland Group. The projects agreements were signed by Xi’an International Land Port Investment Development Group Co., Ltd. DB Cargo, DHL Global Forwarding, and COSCO Shipping Lines Co., Ltd. Secretary Hu and Governor Liu also investigated the operation of the newly built railway logistics base station.
As of now, 1,030 trains of the Chang’an Express have been launched, ranking No.1 in the heavy load rate, the freight volume and the number of total operated trains actually. 11 international transport routes of the Chang’an Express were opened and have connected Xi’an with the main sourcing destinations in Central Asia, Middle East and Europe.
In 2018, the Chang’an Express ranked No.1 respectively in the number of total operated trains actually, the heavy load rate, and the freight volume. With the new route from Xi’an to Riga launched on October 30th, 11 international transport routes of the Chang’an have been operated from Xi’an to the five countries in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan), Iran, Hamburg of Germany, Kouvola of Finland, Budapest of Hungary, Malaszewicze of Poland (Warsaw), Ghent of Belgium, Milan of Italy, Minsk of Belarus, Russia and Riga of Latvia, basically realizing full coverage in the main sourcing destinations in Central Asia, Middle East and Europe.
Improving people’s lives
The 2018 Container Shopping Festival was held in the Xi’an Port Imported Wine Trading Base on October 29th. 13 categories of more than 5,000 commodities from over 40 countries and regions in Europe, Japan, Korea, Central Asia and Southeast Asia were delivered by the Chang’an Express. Numerous citizens came to buy goods in front of the container exhibition zone.
The festival presented the achievements of the Xi’an International Trade & Logistics Park and allowed the citizens to experience the changes of consumption patterns brought by the Chang’an Express.
Since the beginning of this year, special import trains of the Chang’an Express have been successively launched for imported meat and mung beans, cross-border e-commerce, and imported cars. Mass consumption goods like plates from Russian, mung beans from Uzbekistan, wheat from Kazakhstan, honey and cotton yarn from Central Asia, red wine from Georgia, and Volvo cars have realized normalized imports. Nowadays, more and more imported goods are delivered to the Xi’an Port by the Chang’an Express, and entered people’s lives from various direct import stores.
Promoting the foreign trade development
According to the statistics of the Xi’an Customs District P.R. China, the transport capacity of the Chang’an Express have driven rapid growth for the trade of Shaanxi in Central Asia. In the first three quarters of this year, the trade volume of Shaanxi with Central Asia reached RMB760 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 71.2%, of which RMB640 million yuan for exports, and RMB120 million yuan for import, up 88.1% and 15.1% respectively. The Chang’an Express have greatly benefited the vast number of foreign trade enterprises in Shaanxi. The provincial supply of goods accounted for 10% in 2017 while it increased to nearly 20% in 2018, which implied an absolute increase in volume. The Chang’an Express as a powerful engine is pushing the export-oriented economy in Shaanxi at a fast pace.
Propelling the integration of Shaanxi into the Belt and Road initiative
As an inland province far away from coastlines, rivers and borders, Shaanxi shoulders the mission of the country to promote the important fulcrum of the Belt and Road construction. In recent years, Shaanxi has grasped the modern trend and focused on the goal to strive to the development of the pivot economy, the gateway economy and the flow economy, and propelled the in-depth communication of economy and trade, culture, technology and education among Shaanxi and the countries and regions along the Belt and Road.
As an important carrier for Shaanxi to connect countries along the Silk Road, the Chang’an Express has successively linked Xi’an with 15 countries including Iran, Afghanistan, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Belarus and Russia in Central Asia, Middle East and the interior of Europe, basically realizing full coverage in Europe. At the same time, a three-dimensional silk road and multi-level exchange and cooperation platform as well as a sea-land-air network logistics system have been established, which vigorously accelerate the integration of Shaanxi into the Belt and Road construction and the world economic cycle, opening up a new phase of foreign trade for Shaanxi.
The excellent transport capacity and efficient organizational guarantee of the Chang’an Express have pooled the source of goods of 15 provinces and cities like Gansu, Ningxia, Shandong, Shanghai and Zhejiang and distributed these goods in Xi’an Port. More than 80% of the goods come from the outside of Shaanxi and over 70% of the imported goods are distributed from Xi’an to the whole nation. Xi’an Port is becoming an important center for business, logistics, information flow and capital flow in China, improving the efficiency of “bringing in” and “going out” in Shaanxi. Since the beginning of 2018, the number of the Chang’an Express has exceeded 1,000, and its share in the national and European train market has increased significantly.
Nowadays, Shaanxi not only shares its development opportunities with countries along the Silk Road, but also welcomes other countries and regions to board the express train of its development. The effects of “bringing in” have constantly emerged through the high-standard investment activities like the Silk Road International Exposition and the World Xi’an Entrepreneurs Convention. Xi’an is becoming increasingly important in Shaanxi with the in-depth development of the “going out” policy.
