China ready to promote China-Europe freight train services with countries along routes: spokesperson

BEIJING, June 19 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to work with countries along the routes of the China-Europe Railway Express to speed up the high-quality development of the China-Europe freight train services, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday.

Lin made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on the record high monthly transport volume of the China-Europe freight train services in May.

Noting that the China-Europe Railway Express has performed remarkably well this year, Lin said that in May in particular, the China-Europe freight train services made 1,724 trips and carried 186,000 TEUs of goods, up by 14 percent and 13 percent respectively year-on-year and hitting a new monthly high.

By the end of last month, the number of trips run by China-Europe freight trains exceeded 90,000 and carried more than 380 billion U.S. dollars worth of cargo in total. Last week, China-Europe freight train services launched fully timetabled journeys that depart from Chongqing and Yiwu, reducing the journey time to about 13 days from China to Germany, according to the spokesperson.

"These freight trains carry not just cargo but also hope. They connect China and Europe and show the world not only the speed and vitality of Belt and Road cooperation, but also the dynamism and openness of the Chinese economy," Lin said.

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, among other international institutions, in recent reports revised up their forecast for China's economic growth rate, Lin told press.

Lin said that China's total imports and exports of goods grew by 8.6 percent year-on-year, 0.6 percentage points higher than the previous month in May. In the first five months of this year, accumulated imports and exports in China hit a record high compared with the same periods of previous years.

"We stand ready to work with countries along the routes of the China-Europe Railway Express to speed up the high-quality development of the China-Europe freight train services, make sure that global industrial and supply chains stay stable, help the world economy grow and bring more benefits to the people of those countries," Lin said.