Sichuan's capital expands as air and rail transport hub, in move to take off globally

Chengdu is rapidly expanding its air and rail networks so that it can evolve into an international transportation hub.

Fifty industrial supportive policies and a series of support plans for the logistics industry were released in Chengdu this year, to lower business logistics costs, to better connect the city with other parts of the world and to develop a better environment for the logistics industry.

Chengdu will launch more international flights to the United States, Australia, Europe, Africa and Asia, according to the city's latest development plan. The city aims to have a total of 120 international air routes operating by the end of 2022.

In addition, more domestic flights will be launched, bringing more convenience to local businesses, in the next five years.

Du Jingyou, director of the city's Port and Logistic Service Office, said that Chengdu's Shuangliu Airport has to date developed a network of 284 air routes - 182 of them domestic and 102 international flight routes.

The new Tianfu International Airport has already started construction and will be completed in 2020. Chengdu will become the third city in China to be equipped with two airports.

"Chengdu will strive to launch more flights to cities connected to the Belt and Road, to accelerate construction of the Silk Road in the sky," Du said.

Du said Chengdu will take measures to launch more flights to major cultural cities and economic hub cities in North America and Europe to strengthen its opening-up strategy. It has also set itself the goal of becoming an important city in the world's aviation networks, according to local officials

Chengdu has become a gateway connecting Europe and Asia with the Chengdu-Europe Express Railway. The express railway now has southern, central and northern routes that terminate in Istanbul in Turkey, Lodz in Poland and Moscow in Russia.

The central line will be the main service line. More regular rail services will be launched to better connect Chengdu with other cities in China.

Zhang Chi, deputy director of the Port and Logistic Service office, said that the Chengdu-Europe Express Rail service was launched in response to China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The railway is also a major part of the city's push to transform itself into a key transportation and communication hub, a new economic highlight in China's western region and a national core city.

National core cities are cities with strong economic development potential that can support the development of their surrounding regions, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Zhang said that the improved logistics and transportation network will offer more chances to companies to seek business opportunities in foreign markets. It will help companies to strengthen their core competitiveness and accelerate the development of emerging businesses such as cross-border e-commerce, bonded goods processing, the transshipment trade and offshore trade.

Many leading businesses in Chengdu such as Toyota, TCL, Volvo and Dell, have used the Chengdu-Europe Express Rail service in the past few years.

The expanded international transportation network has also brought many European products such as meat, fruit and cheaper imported vehicles to Chengdu's residents over the past few years.

Zhang said that some imported vehicles, including Audi and BMW models, were 15 to 30 percent lower than locally produced vehicles.

The Chengdu-Europe Express Railway service will make more than 1,000 trips in 2017, up from 460 last year, according to local authorities.

(China Daily 09/13/2017 page5)