Govt to assess railway links to Europe

The government is building a system to evaluate China-Europe freight train routes, in order to fend off risks from price competition and local government subsidy, which is expected to be reduced by 10 percent a year starting from 2018, according to the nation's top financial regulators.

Government subsidies for the China-Europe freight trains should be capped at 50 percent compared to the costs of domestic railway costs, and subsidies are expected to be reduced by 10 percent a year compared to the 50 percent level in 2018, according to requirements by the Ministry of Finance.

"While fruitful results have been achieved with much policy support from the Belt and Road Initiative, more efforts are needed to improve the efficiency of operation, prevent the blind expansion of railway routes and lower operating costs," said Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.