Yangtze River Economic Belt to Boost Liangjiang New Area's Ambition of Becoming International Logistics Hub

CHONGQING, China, Oct. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The State Council recently released its Yangtze River economic belt plan, in a bid to develop it into an inland river economic belt with a global economic influence. According to the plan, Chongqing has been named as one of the three major shipping centers in China, which will bring new opportunities for European and American investors to expand China's inland markets.

In April this year, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspected four-square-kilometer Guoyuan Port in Liangjiang New Area and praised it as a "first port". He expected that Guoyuan Port could create a kind of "big traffic" pattern, and link the huge markets of the Yangtze River economic belt and the Silk Road economic zone.

As China's first state-level inland New Area as well as the engine to Chongqing's development, Liangjiang New Area covers Guoyuan Port and Cuntan Port locates in the golden waterway of Yangtze River as well as  two Bonded Ports which connect to Chongqing from land and sea. Liangjiang New Area is seeking to become China's inland international logistics hub. To this end, Chongqing speeded up international logistics channel constructions - especially the one to Europe - which successfully promoted the rapid growth of Liangjiang's international trade, making it become an important investment destination for foreign investors.

On December 5, 2013, with a planned investment of 10.5 billion yuan ($ 1.72 billion), China's largest inland port - Guoyuan Port - officially opened. According to the Yangtze River economic belt plan, Guoyuan Port will launch a railway line connecting with Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway in 2015, which will realize railway-water-road through transport.

According to Chen Fuhao, director of the Investment and Development Department of Chongqing Guoyuan Port Ltd, six billion yuan of the 10.5 billion yuan investment has already been allocated. According to the 'port in the front and garden in the back' layout, it's planned to construct 165,000-ton berths with an annual throughput capacity of 30 million tons, including two million tons of TEU (Twenty-Equivalent Unit) containers, six million tons of bulk cargo, and one million tons of commodity and automobiles.

Guoyuan Port's ambitions do not stop there. According to the information provided by the constructor Chongqing Port Logistics Group, Guoyuan Port aims to become the largest container distribution center, bulk cargo distribution center, commodity and automobile distribution center, bulk means of production trading center and comprehensive services center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Data released by Chongqing Customs showed that in the first three quarters of this year, Liangjiang New Area's total import and export value reached 258.58 billion yuan ($ 42.3 billion), an increase of 1.1 times. Trade volumes to Hong Kong, ASEAN and EU, which are the top three trade partners, were 65.29 billion yuan, up 2.9 times; 53.71 billion yuan, up 1.5 times; and 34.97 billion yuan, an increase of 6.6 percent respectively. Liangjiang New Area is becoming an important international investment destination.