Xinjiang new communications, logistics hub of Asia

Once a deprived region, Xinjiang now becomes one of the major communications and logistics hub of Asia due to the establishment of the Urumqi Land Port.

The province has borders with eight countries and as the main city of the province-- Urumqi is at the epicentre of the Silk Road.

From there rail is connecting China with Pakistan, Iran, the Middle East, Europe via Russia and South Asia via Yunan.

The state-of-the-art land port was built with the aim to achieve high-quality development in the new era and Urumqi City authorities take a series of measures such as strengthening overall planning, highlighting development priorities, making full use of policies, building a broad platform, focusing on project construction, and optimising the business environment to promote the ‘one port and five centres’ in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

According to officials, focusing on promoting the construction of ‘one port and five centres’, Urumqi is strengthening overall planning and is attracting domestic and foreign resources.

In realising the ‘opening up’ vision, the authorities gather and promote the overall improvement of the core area by building the Urumqi International Land Port Area, Airport Economic Zone, and International Textile and Garment Trade Center.

The authorities make good use of policies to accelerate the construction of an international comprehensive transportation hub, a land-port-type national logistics hub, and a national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone.

The Urumqi International Land Port Area is a landmark project in the construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Due to these ‘five major platforms’ including the China-Europe Express (Urumqi) assembly centre and express centre projects, Urumqi is becoming the multimodal transport collection area and grain and oil trading centre.

Officials said the Land Port Group will organise multimodal transport, bulk commodity supply chain, park (station) development and operation, comprehensive financial services, data information services, etc.

The main business is to build an ecosystem integrating "logistics, trade, industry, finance, and data".

The Inland Port Group will further improve the supporting facilities in the international inland port area and fully promote the construction of functional infrastructure, basic facilities for the assembly centre of China-Europe Railway Express, and information transformation and upgrading projects.

There are nine investment projects, and the annual investment is about 390 million yuan.

According to the reports, a number of major landmark projects in the core area, such as the Urumqi Airport Reconstruction and Expansion Project, the International Textile Center Textile Fiber and Yarn Industrial Park, and Jingdong Asia No.1 are accelerating.

Since its inception in 2015, over 6,500 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight trains departed from the Urumqi International Land Port Area in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region till June.

The Urumqi International Land Port Area has launched 21 rail routes accessing 19 countries and regions in Europe and Asia, with over 200 categories of goods carried by trains.

In 2022, more than 19,000 freight trucks passed through the land port, double that of 2021, along with more than 1,165 China-Europe railway express trains, an increase of 16.5 per cent year-on-year.

Officials also informed that with a planned area of 67 square km containing the Urumqi China-Europe Railway Express Hub and a comprehensive bonded zone, the land port area stands as a landmark project in the construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

mirmostafiz@yahoo.com