Port economy helps inland areas become the frontier of opening up

The International Port Company in Lanzhou, Gansu province, recently sent a Central Asian freight train loaded with 290 Chinese-made cars to Uzbekistan, Xinhua reported in Lanzhou. At the same time, the cumulative number of China-Europe (Central Asia) trains at the Khorgos railway port in Xinjiang has exceeded 40,000, and the freight volume at the land ports in Inner Mongolia has once again reached the milestone of 100 million tons.

In recent years, by strengthening the development of port economy, Northwest China has gradually changed from a closed inland area to a new frontier of opening up.

This year, Lanzhou International Port Company has successfully sent 33 JSQ type vehicles (vehicles specially used for automobile rail transport) commercial vehicle international trains to Central and South Asia and other regions, with a total of 9,119 domestic vehicles exported to overseas markets.

Cao Zhu, general manager of the company, mentioned that the company is actively expanding the market as the popularity of domestic new energy vehicles continues to rise in the Central Asian market. "We organized special export trains in a timely manner to provide stable transportation capacity for domestic new energy vehicles to enter the Central Asian market, but also improve the cargo collection capacity and assembly efficiency of enterprises, and accelerate the construction of Lanzhou automobile export trade center." 'he said.

To carry out large-scale import and export business in inland areas, the construction of trade ports is indispensable.

In recent years, Gansu Province has established various types of ports, including designated ports for imported fruits and chilled aquatic products, designated inspection grounds for imported meat, etc., and routinely carries out import businesses such as meat, wood, fruit, chilled aquatic products and cotton yarn. The trade forms are constantly enriched, and the level of opening to the outside world is constantly improving.

In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 14 land ports operate around the clock along more than 4,200 kilometers of border lines. By optimizing customs clearance processes, expanding trade channels, and improving opening platforms, Inner Mongolia is advancing its construction as an important bridgehead for opening up to the north.

Xinjiang, which has 20 ports approved by The State Council for opening to the outside world, has been working to build a "port economic belt" in recent years. Since the beginning of this year, the average daily traffic volume of China-Europe (Central Asia) trains at the Khorgos Railway port has been maintained at more than 22, and the loading of an inbound and return China-Europe train can be completed every 2 hours on average. From January to September this year, 6,269 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight trains were launched, an increase of 8.1 percent year-on-year. Port shipments reached 8.805 million tons, up 9% year on year.

The northwest region is constantly improving the efficiency of customs clearance and promoting the high-quality development of the inland port economy.

At Ganqi Maodu port in Inner Mongolia, AGV driverless vehicles shuttle across the border between China and Mongolia, and the customs intelligent bayonet can complete vehicle clearance within 30 seconds. Inbound freight vehicles at Mandura port can complete the weight check within 30 seconds, and the bayonette clearance takes up to 6 seconds. At the Manzhouli railway port, customs staff have reduced the supervision time of China-Europe trains from nearly six hours to five minutes by optimizing the inspection process and working electronically.

In Lanzhou railway port, Lanzhou Customs and other regulatory departments continue to promote international trade "single window" one-stop declaration, electronic release, customs declaration online processing and other reform measures, and the implementation of "advance declaration, booking customs clearance", as well as qualified goods "first release after testing" and a series of preferential policies to help enterprises save customs clearance time.

The port economy is becoming a new bright spot in the economic development of inland areas. Liu Yongming, deputy director of the Department of Commerce of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and director of the Oral Office of the autonomous region, said that Inner Mongolia will continue to play its role as an important bridgehead for opening up to the north, constantly improve the efficiency of port clearance and expand opening up in an all-round way.

Lin Ke, a professor at the School of Economics of Lanzhou University, believes that ports in inland areas will closely connect two domestic and foreign markets and two kinds of resources at home and abroad. The Belt and Road Initiative has become a huge opportunity for high-quality development in inland regions.