Steel Silk Road East China - Central Asia
In almost three years, the number of freight trains running on East China - Central Asia railway has surpassed three-thousand mark. Recently, the 3,016th train left the container terminal of China Railways of Qingdao, located on the coastal edge of the Eastern province of Shandong, and headed to the Central Asian destinations. The train is loaded with 41 containers with international transit cargo, including household appliances from Korea and Japan, auto parts, electronics, agricultural products from the USA and South-East Asia, engine oil, copper products, plastic granules, furniture and much more. All these products are intended for the markets of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. “In 14 days, the Central Asian the train can reach any place of the five Central Asian countries, the total length of the route is 4500 kilometers, compared to sea transportation, the time is reduced by 30 days, which significantly increases the efficiency of transportation,” Deputy Director of the Central container station Qingdao Wei Xuelun said in an interview with China.org.cn. According to the head of the West railway junction of Qingdao Shin Fangming, the China is determined to promote and popularize this route, called the Iron Silk road. Direct freight rail service between Central Asia and Qingdao with a capacity of up to 20,000 standard containers per year was launched in July 2015. Every day container trains cross the Central Asian border at two points: in the Alashankou checkpoint, from where the train goes to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as well as at Khorgos checkpoint - for further transit to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In mid-April, Shandong administrative center, Jinan city, also joined the scheme of railway freight traffic to Central Asia. And just before, the first freight train from the Henan province (central part of China) left for the five Central Asian countries. This train is entrusted with the task of expanding export-import exchange between the region and China through “leaves full, returns full” program. As the state information center of China notes in its recent report on trade cooperation under Belt and Road initiative, last year the fastest growth in China's trade turnover was recorded with the countries of Central Asia. According to forecasts of the Academy of social sciences in Beijing, the China and Central Asian will cooperate more closely in trade and economy in the foreseeable future. Thus, this year edition of annual report by the Academy’s Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian studies on Central Asia’s development, listed a number of factors that will contribute to this positive trend. Among them - the observed economic recovery in Central Asia, relative security, the growing role of the region as a traffic hub, improving the investment environment, infrastructure development.
