New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor reaches 490 ports in 120 countries, regions

CHONGQING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor reaches 490 ports in 120 countries and regions, according to the annual session of the people's congress of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Sunday.

This trade corridor, jointly built by provincial-level regions in western China and ASEAN members, saw its cargo volume rise 21 percent year on year in 2023. Chongqing, which is the corridor's operational hub, became even more open to the world thanks to the corridor's greater impact last year.

China-Europe freight train services handled by Chongqing and the city of Chengdu, in the neighboring Sichuan Province, cover 110 cities in Europe and Asia. A total of 33 international flight routes involving Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport were resumed last year, said the city's mayor Hu Henghua when delivering the government work report.

Chongqing has continued to optimize its foreign investment and trade mix. In 2023, exports of the city's "new three" products, namely electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells, doubled compared with the previous year. The value of the city's automobile exports registered 51.9 percent year-on-year growth in 2023.

A total of 782 new foreign enterprises were established in Chongqing last year, while the city's import and export volume amounted to 713.74 billion yuan (about 100.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023.