The China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has witnessed growing business cooperation between the two nations.
Opened in 2014, the base has handled over 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo through direct China-Europe freight trains over the past decade.
The railway link between east China's Lianyungang port and Kazakhstan, the world's largest landlocked country, has helped to improve trade.
Azilkhan Bedelov from Kazakhstan's capital of Astana has been working at the China-Kazakhstan logistics base since 2017.
"Kazakhstan is an inland nation. It has no access to the sea. Now the railway provides a good option," said Bedelov, who is the deputy general manager of China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Company now.
The logistics base facilitates bilateral trade, allowing products from countries like South Korea and Japan to be exported to Kazakhstan, and for Kazakhstan's products to go abroad.
"Most products are general goods and machinery equipment from China, and vehicles in transit," said Ge Hengxue, general manager of China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Company.
Last year, a system was introduced allowing processes to be updated in real time at the cargo departure point and destination.
"If there were no such system, the Kazakhstan side would not know the trains and containers were shipped on time. There would be a lag," said Cheng Fei, dispatch team leader of the company.
The streamlined trade route now shortens the transportation time from Lianyungang to Kazakhstan's largest city of Almaty to just 6.5 days.
China-Kazakhstan logistics center boosts business cooperation in decade
China encourages and supports enterprises to cultivate future industries, unleash new growth momentum and seek first-mover advantages, said Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, at a press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Future industries refer to new industries integrated with advanced technology, such as metaverse, humanoid robots, brain-computer interface and quantum information.
A new guideline, unveiled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and six other government departments in January, emphasized seizing global trends in sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation, with a particular focus on six key directions: future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future health.
At present, China's strategic emerging industries account for 13 percent of GDP, with huge potential for growth.
The guideline set the goals of fostering a batch of leading enterprises in emerging industries such as new materials, artificial intelligence, intelligent connected new-energy vehicles, new energy storage, hydrogen energy, biomanufacturing, commercial spaceflight, and low-altitude economy.
"In the next step, centering around the six directions, we will focus on the fields of humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, metaverse, next-generation Internet, 6G, quantum technology, atomically precise manufacturing, deep-sea exploration and space development, carry out a batch of projects for sci-tech development, make breakthroughs in a number of key core technologies, come up with a wealth of signature products or outcomes, and set up a group of future industry incubators," said Jin.
China supports development of future industries: MIIT
