URUMQI -- The northwestern region of Xinjiang has been leading China's latest opening-up drive, fortifying a "bridgehead" for the country's economic and trade ties with the Eurasian nations.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday while opening the second China-Eurasia Expo at Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, that the region's geographical, cultural and resource advantages have become more prominent in the course of China's opening up to the west and along the border areas.
"Xinjiang has become the bridgehead for China's mutually beneficial cooperation with the Eurasian nations, especially the neighboring countries," he said.
Xinjiang is home to the westernmost section of the Eurasian Land Bridge, a transcontinental rail route, at the Chinese end, connecting east Asia and west Europe.
It abuts on Pakistan, Mongolia, Russia, India and four other central Asian countries with a borderline extending 5,600 km, giving it an easy access to markets in the Eurasian heartland.
Springboard
At the ongoing expo, participants said they also believe the "bridgehead" for China's opening-up to the west has taken shape.
Some investors expressed great interest in exporting their products through the gateway of Xinjiang to central Asia.
"Yes, I believe Xinjiang is a perfect 'springboard' for our business to access the west, the central Asian areas," said Peng Jun, board chairman of a shoe company in the southwestern Sichuan Province at the expo.
"Our logistics costs will be cut by at least 20 percent if we export our products through the westward gateway of Xinjiang rather than through the sea route in the eastern coasts."
Others have already set up business in the autonomous region where they can reach out to markets in the central Asia and further west with less logistics costs.
Yiwu Business Chamber, an investment and trade organization based in the eastern Zhejiang Province, has invested 4 billion yuan ($630 million) to set up a logistics center in Xinjiang, exporting small commodities to Dushanbe and Kabul, and even as far as London, through cross-border highways.
One of the chamber's exhibitors told Xinhua that they have chosen Xinjiang because its geographic location and the increasing number of roads and railways.
Booming infrastructure construction
The "springboard" came amid Xinjiang's massive infrastructure construction along its borders.
Seventeen state-level open ports, two international airports and extensive roads and railways link the landlocked region with its neighbours to the west, most of which share same languages and cultures with the ethnic groups densely populated in the autonomous region.
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