During the first 11 months of this year, Chongqing's transport volume on the waterways, railways and highways of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor reached or exceeded 95 percent of the annual target.
The corridor connects West China and Southeast Asian countries and regions through land-sea intermodal transport. Goods from West China can be shipped via multiple transport methods to the Beibu Gulf Port in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and then exported to other countries and regions.
During the 11 months, 64,013 containers were transported through the corridor, a year-on-year increase of 41.6 percent. The goods' total value was 12.06 billion yuan ($1.85 billion), a year-on-year increase of 32.9 percent.
With the Chengdu-Chongqing regional economic circle's construction, Sichuan province has become Chongqing's most important goods supplier. From January to November, the rail-sea combined transport system carried 5,167 goods from Sichuan, occupying 70 percent of goods from outside Chongqing.
So far, the corridor can reach 250 ports in 96 countries and regions, including 20 ports in eight ASEAN countries. These ports are in Singapore, Laem Chabang, Bangkok, Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City, among other cities.
For the first 11 months of this year, 22,065 containers were transported to ASEAN countries through the corridor, occupying 34.5 percent of the corridor's total transport volume. The containers were worth 7.28 billion yuan, occupying 60.4 percent of the corridor's total cargo value and 82 percent of the corridor's total foreign trade.
Among all the ASEAN countries, Vietnam occupies the highest cargo volume and value, which was 50.1 percent and 75.9 percent during the first 11 months, respectively.
John Edwards, the UK trade commissioner for China, praised Chongqing over its rise as a burgeoning center in intelligent manufacturing.