China-Singapore Chongqing Connectivity Initiative ‘Southern Transport Corridor’ Rail and Sea Networks Going Global
Original source from China People’s Daily. View source in Chinese: https://bit.ly/2tpLcPV
19 Jun 2018 —
Chongqing Guoyuan Port plays an important role in the multimodal transport system. The picture shows a ship unloading at the Port
In September 2017, Chongqing Connectivity Initiative’s Southern Transport Corridor bound multi-modal transportation of rail and sea ways starting its journey from the Chongqing Railway Port
Photo courtesy of Chongqing Gongyun ASEAN International Logistics Co., Ltd.
The first shuttle truck from Chongqing to the ASEAN roads took off from Chongqing ASEAN International Logistics Park on 28 April, 2016, the 10 standard container trucks loaded with export goods passed through Pingxiang, Guangxi, and finally arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. The journey took about 40 hours, which was 15 days shorter than sea transport.
The trade channel is changing – starting from Singapore, via the Southern Transport Corridor, the container rail and sea transportation arrive in Chongqing in 10 days, which saves 15 days compared to the Jianghai-Channel intermodal route;
The logistics efficiency is changing – the multimodal intelligent system can find cargo information in 5 minutes, realize rapid container collection, and solve the problems of pallet configuration that has plagued the enterprise for many years;
The service industry is changing – the goods, technologies and resources are coming together. New business opportunities have given birth to a number of foreign trade services such as multimodal transport, cross-border big data platforms, and joint venture business collaborations.
Business exchanges are growing – Chongqing and Singapore’s round-trip passenger flow has increased from 45,000 in the past to 190,000 last year, there are more and more business travellers. Flights have increased from 5 to 14 per week;
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The changes originated from the third government-to government project between China and Singapore.
On November 7, 2015, the third inter-governmental cooperation project, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Strategic Interconnection Demonstration Project (hereinafter referred to as ” Chongqing Connectivity Initiative (CCI)”), “settled in” Chongqing. Over the past two years, with the theme of “modern interconnection and modern service economy”, 116 key projects with a total value of approximately US$20.8 billion have taken root in Chongqing in the four major areas of financial services, aviation industry, transportation and logistics, and information and communications. “.
Southern Transport Corridor Connects International Shipping Network
On April 19th, a 40-foot container full of mold raw materials set off from Singapore. Ten days later, Yi Shen Die Technology (Chongqing) Co., Ltd. successfully received the goods.
This speed of delivery makes the company’s inventory manager Tan Yu happy. Prior to this, importing goods from Singapore through Jianghai, first arrived in Shanghai and then entered Chongqing, which took nearly a month. “Today, the goods are sent from Singapore, first to Guangxi’s Qinzhou Port and then to “Chongqing New” Railway Sea Intermodal Class to Chongqing. The entire process takes only 10 days.”
This new line is the southbound channel of the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative (hereinafter referred to as the “Southern Transport Corridor”).
As the operation center, Chongqing has a unique geographical advantage. To the west, the Chongqing-Europe railway (YuXinOu) reaches China’s northwest, Central Asia, and Europe; towards east, it connects Shanghai to the sea via the “Golden Waterway” of the Yangtze River. To the south, more than 250 routes converge at the Singapore Port on the southeast side of the Strait of Malacca.
Through the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor, complimented by the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. All three logistics infrastructure completed a perfect trade network.
In September 2017, the Changgui New Tiehai Intermodal trains are fixed as routines and marked the official operation of the Southern Transport Corridor: starting from Chongqing to Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, and connecting sea to reach the ASEAN ports, and then connecting to the international shipping network. network.
At the same time, Chongqing’s cross-border road transport and international rail transport to the Indochina peninsula are also being realized.
Cross-border highway shuttle bus line: It departs from Nanpen Chongqing and exits through border ports in Guangxi and Yunnan, leading to countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar.
International railway transport links: From the southwestern railway network, through Pingxiang, Hekou, Mohan, Ruili and other border ports, and the Pan-Asian railway network convergence, connecting the Indochina Peninsula.
Three lines, vertical and horizontal miles, complement each other. Southward, the “secondary governor” of foreign trade in the western region of China was opened up; to the north, the economic and trade exchanges between Singapore and other ASEAN countries leading to western China, Central Asia, and Europe were invigorated. “This will connect most of China’s entire territory with Southeast Asia, Eurasia, and Africa, greatly increasing the speed of cargo transportation,” said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.
On April 20th, a batch of LCD screens from Vietnam took only 10 hours to reach Qinzhou Port from Vietnam, then onto Chongqing via the Southern Transport Corridor. The LCDs went on the same day’s Chongqing-Europe railway (YuXinOu) to Poland.
“It takes only 90 minutes to complete the sea-railway transport up to customs declaration in Qinzhou Port. It takes only 70 minutes to complete the railway transit declaration at the Chongqing Railway Port, and it is very fast and efficient!” said Wang Yupei, Chairman of China-Singapore Southern Transport Corridor. Southern Transport Corridor and Chongqing-Europe railway (YuXinOu) together have achieved seamless convergence.
Currently, the internal and external ports of the Southern Transport Corridor rail and sea transports covered 82 ports in 45 countries and regions including East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East.
Chan Chun Sing, Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore, interprets the goal of the Southern Transport Corridor as ‘one channel that connects China and Singapore, one rail and sea intermodal network that reaches every part of the world’.
”Innovation” –
The Chongqing Connectivity Initiative project connects China and Singapore’s strategic channels. Unlike China-Singapore cooperation in the construction of Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-City, this project has no land development and park planning, and it has no physical scenes.
Han Baochang, director of the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative Management Bureau, stated that there is no precedent when carrying out this project, there are only trials and errors.
In Zheng Yongnian’s view, when there is no physical entity, the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative project will face greater challenges than the previous two Sino-Singapore cooperation projects, and it will have more important innovation significance.
To achieve a “from 0 to 1” leap, we must grasp the “golden key” of innovation. The relevant national ministries and commissions gave support to the project’s 57 innovation initiatives. In 2017, Chongqing also proposed some new innovation measures.
Innovation begins with the working mechanism. The Joint Implementation Committee “discovered problems”, the Joint Working committee “researched issues”, and the Joint Coordination Council “solved problems.” “The three-tiered working mechanism, ‘from the bottom to the top’, opens up the blockage and promotes problem solving. This is the most attractive facet for the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative,” said Han Baochang.
Step by step, the purpose of Chongqing Connectivity Initiative is increasingly becoming more meaningful.
In March this year, Sasseur REIT was listed on the Singapore Exchange. As the Western regions first real estate investment trust listed in the Singapore Exchange, this is of great significance for the exploration of the new cross-border financing model for enterprises in the central and western regions.
There are many more “firsts” created under the umbrella of Chongqing Connectivity Initiative: In December 2016, Loncin Holdings issued 0.8 billion yuan of overseas bonds on the Singapore Exchange, the first private corporate bond in western China. It pioneered the launch of innovative financial services such as bill-bill financing, “export double-pace” trade financing, cross-border asset transfer, and inland river carrier liability insurance.
Today, both China and Singapore sides have established diversified cross-border investment and financing channels, cumulatively completed 60 types of cross-border credit financing projects with financing amount of US$5.06 billion, and reduce financing costs by 1.15 percentage points. The cross-border financing for the provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Shaanxi and other provinces amounted to 2.23 billion U.S. dollars, and the successful implementation of the China-Singapore cross-border financing model radiated to neighbouring provinces.
Through cooperation with Singapore companies, Chongqing companies are also advancing in innovation. A few years ago, Ding Yan’s Chongqing Pucheng Logistics Co., Ltd. had to implement rapid consolidation through manual inquiries and telephone calls. The Singapore Huilian Group’s multimodal intelligent system requires only the input of container, departure port, and destination information, and cargo information can be found within 5 minutes. Seeing this, Ding Yan immediately agreed to the requirement of “51% stake in the company.” Last May, the two companies jointly set up a new company – Chongqing Huilian Pucheng International Logistics Co., Ltd.
Ding Yan benefited from the sophisticated management brought by innovation: from the numerous departments and the complex management level, to the development of individual assessment and profit indicators according to the branch company model; from focusing on the cost of employing personnel to the use of a comprehensive compensation system. “The staff has increased by 1/3, but the efficiency has more than doubled.” Ding Yan said: “Even the design of the warehouse has been optimized and innovative, and the warehouse has become a double storey. The increase in cost per square meter is less than 1,000 yuan, but the area of usage has increased by twofold.”
Many small and medium-sized enterprises are not able to form a full case of transportation due to the small volume of goods. The Chongqing Connectivity Initiative has brought business opportunities for Chinese and Singaporean companies collaborations. Fuxin Europe (Chongqing) Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. and Singapore Huantong Logistics Group jointly established Zhongxin Huantong (Chongqing) Multimodal Transport Co., Ltd. in February last year to provide public LCL services. Mixed pallet price is similar in shipping, but it also saves time,” said Wang Huoquan, deputy general manager of the company.
“Sharing” –
Expanding channels of “friends circle”
Chongqing Liangjiang Digital Economy Industrial Park, an office building with coffee and musk – this is the Chongqing Coffee Exchange Center. Sun Zheng, Deputy General Manager of the center, said that before, coffee beans imported from Vietnam were shipped to Chongqing via JiangHai intermodal transport route, processed into coffee powder and sent back to Vietnam. After the launch of the Southern Transport Corridor, the time efficiencies for transportation has greatly increased, and foreign companies have set up factories in Chongqing.
As the largest coffee spot trading place in China, Chongqing Coffee Exchange Center will also sell coffee from Yunnan and Southeast Asia to Europe to form an agglomeration of the global coffee industry.
Not just for coffee commodity, after the Southern Transport Corridor and the Chongqing European Railway (Chongqing YuXinOu Railway) are seamlessly connected, the canned tuna in the Philippines, Vietnamese clothing, etc. will no longer need to be transferred from Iran. After customs declaration at the Chongqing Railway Bonded Logistics Center, the goods can board on the Chongqing European Railway the same day, depart China from Xinjiang and arrived in Germany in less than 20 days. Onions, apples, summer vegetables, and Chinese herbal medicines in northwestern China have also begun to become “demanding goods” in Southeast Asian countries.
“The higher the amount of freight traffic aggregated on the channel, the more participants there are and the greater the economies of scale, which can reduce costs, benefit all parties including enterprises, benefit the business environment in western China, and promote investment.” Chan Chun Sing said.
As the Southern Transport Corridor continues to expand through multiplying effects, the economic values for it’s surrounding areas are enhanced. As an operation center, Chongqing will cooperate with Guangxi, Guizhou, Gansu, and Qinghai to conduct regional cooperation and jointly discuss the establishment and sharing of the Southern Transport Corridor. In April of this year, the Southern Transport Corridor Chinese joint meeting has invited Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces to participate.
The channel is not a simple “aisle”. It needs continuous improvements in services. China-Singapore Smart City has launched pilot projects in five districts and counties, and cooperation in smart transportation, smart animal husbandry and smart buildings is underway. Three unattended supermarkets will be launched in Singapore during the year; the data service platform went online in April this year. The platform gathered information on corporate data from the two countries and promoted the transnational development of enterprises. The Zimwork Sino-Bilingual Talent Service Trading Platform has been officially launched as joint venture between Chongqing Zhūbājiè Network and Singapore Press Holdings Group.
Interconnection, creating new opportunities for opening up inland
Since the beginning of this year, WiseNet Asia (Chongqing) Co., Ltd. has added 10 Singaporean corporate customers who are preparing to invest in Chongqing. Karen Wong, GM of WiseNet Asia (Chongqing), plans to recruit more talents from the neighboring provinces. According to Karen, “Southern Transport Corridor connects Singapore with the mainland of China. Our business is getting busier.”
About WiseNet Asia (Chongqing) /重庆中新巍海商务咨询有限公司
Wisenet Asia (Chongqing)/重庆中新巍海商务咨询有限公司 is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wisenet Asia (S) Pte Ltd. It is the first overseas high-end headhunter company in Chongqing’s Human Resources Industrial Park, dedicated to implementing the Chongqing Municipality’s HongYan (talent) scheme, and helping Chongqing organizations in their talent needs. The company was also selected as one of the Talent Acquisition Service Provider for Chongqing Municipality from 2018-2019 under the HongYan (talent) policy.
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