Highway service speeds up link between ASEAN, western China

CHONGQING, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Beer, coffee, souvenirs and wooden furniture stand on display in a mall in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, fine examples of goods from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

They have traveled a long way to this point of sale in the ASEAN Commodity Centralized Purchasing City, taking their place beside characteristic agricultural and industrial products from western China.

The purchasing city was opened in June this year to provide a display-and-trading marketplace for import and export commodities, a response to increased demand within western China for Southeast Asian agricultural products, fruits and daily necessities.

Since the facility was opened by the Chongqing Highway Logistics Base, eight institutions and enterprises have set up shop here.

"I am so proud to see Lao products here," said Phoutsawanh Khounchantha, Economic and Commercial Counselor, Embassy of the Lao PDR in China.

During his visit to the purchasing city, Phoutsawanh highlighted the importance of the Chongqing cross-border highway service, a highway logistics channel that opened in 2016, facilitating the transport of an increasing volume of products from ASEAN member states into China's western hinterland.

Phoutsawanh said the highway service has become an important link between ASEAN member states and China in terms of economic and trade exchanges.

"Compared with railways, aviation and water transportation, highway logistics is more flexible," said Liu Gongfeng, general manager of the Chongqing Highway Logistics Base. "It is especially effective for the ASEAN sub-region, which lack large-scale logistics infrastructure."

At present, the Chongqing cross-border highway service operates six routes to ASEAN member states, setting up links between Chongqing and Southeast Asia, and connecting with Europe. Vehicles on the eastern line take about 45 hours to reach Hanoi, Vietnam, while the journey on the middle line to Bangkok, Thailand, takes about 98 hours. The Singapore line, meanwhile, takes vehicles to Singapore in about seven days.

These days, electromechanical items, building materials, automobiles and motorcycles from western China can quickly reach Southeast Asia, while fruit, wood and other products from Southeast Asia can travel to Chongqing and then onward to central and western China, as well as Europe.

So far, more than 4,500 trucks have transported goods worth around 2.67 billion yuan (about 409 million U.S. dollars) to countries including Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

Yi Lingjiang, with the Chongqing-ASEAN International Logistics Co., Ltd., said that the Chongqing cross-border highway service is an important part of the new land-sea corridor in western China, which has promoted trade with ASEAN countries.

With the impetus from the new land-sea corridor in western China, trade between ASEAN and western China will become closer in the future, Phoutsawanh said.