Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation Institute of International Trade in Services

II. Major Contributions

• New highlights of the Belt and Road Initiative cooperation

China is becoming an important market for service exports of countries along the Belt and Road Initiative routes (hereinafter referred to as “the B&R countries”) The policy of “people-to-people exchanges" has driven the rapid growth of trade in travel services. B&R countries attract more than 25 million Chinese tourists every year, and China has become the largest source of tourists for countries and regions along this route. The Chinese tourism consumption in the B&R countries has promoted local economic growth and employment, and facilitated non-governmental exchanges and economic and trade cooperation. China has established 30 high-quality overseas TCM(Traditional Chinese medicine )centers in B&R countries and regions, playing an active role in meeting the diverse health needs of people in these countries. In 2019, the import and export volume of cultural products between China and the B&R countries and regions reached USD 22.93 billion, an increase of 24.1%, accounting for 20.6% of the total in that year. Driven by foreign contracted projects and major foreign aid projects, the cooperation in trade in construction services between China and the B&R countries has achieved remarkable results, and Chinese construction enterprises have made significant contributions to the development of infrastructure construction in those countries. The China Railway Express (CR Express) is the flagship project of jointly building the “Belt and Road Initiative" as well as an important carrier for deepening pragmatic cooperation between China and the B&R economies.

CR Express

The CR Express has become a bridge for the Belt and Road Initiative cooperation. With the expansion of running scope, the reduction of logistics costs as well as the improvement of operational efficiency, informatization and security, the CR Express has effectively promoted the trade in services cooperation among the B&R countries.
From 2011 to 2020, the number of running trains of the CR Express increased from 17 to 12,400, an increase of 728 times.
From January to October 2021, the CR Express ran 12,605 trips and transported 1.216 million TEUs, up 26% and 33% year-on-year respectively. The number of running trains and the volume of traffic exceeded the total volume of 2020. In the first 10 months of this year, the ratio of the number of return trains to that of outbound trains reached 81%.
In the month of October, the CR Express ran 1,262 trips, of which 628, 219 and 415 trips were operated in the west, middle and east corridors respectively.
Table 1 Running number of CR Express in 2011-2020
Source: China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.