Index released to reflect development of New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor

The first-phase index for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by Singapore and provincial-level regions of western China, was released on last Friday in Chongqing, southwest China.

The comprehensive index for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor was 101.5 in the first quarter of 2021, presenting a positive trend of the development of the trade corridor at the start of the year, according to the index report released at a conference held during the Third Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade.

It is reported that the index is based on the performance of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the third quarter of 2019 when the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, unveiled an overall plan for the development of the trade corridor. A reading above 100 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction. The index aims to comprehensively reflect the development of logistics facilities, ports, trade, and industries along the trade corridor.

The index will provide information guidance and data judgments for economic and industrial development along the trade corridor, and also offer an important basis for countries and regions along the corridor to carry out trade exchanges and capacity cooperation, said Ba Chuanjiang, an official of Chongqing Municipal Government.

It is learned that the compilation of the index is jointly carried out by departments in charge of the trade corridor construction from 13 provincial-level regions and one city, including Chongqing, Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Yunnan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Guizhou, Qinghai, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Tibet autonomous region, Hainan, and Zhanjiang city in Guangdong province.

In 2020, the rail-sea combined freight trains, cross-border ASEAN shuttle buses, and international rail intermodal trains of the trade corridor achieved leapfrog growth. A total of 276,800 TEUs were delivered via the above means of transportation, an increase of 66 percent year-on-year, and the value of goods was 30.54 billion yuan, a jump of 239 percent year-on-year, according to Liu Wei, head of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Logistics and Operation Coordination Center.