Freight service in focus ahead of 6th CIIE

A China-Europe freight train fully loaded with exhibits for the upcoming 6th China International Import Expo arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday, marking the final stage of preparatory work for this year's CIIE to be held from Nov 5 to 10, according to officials.

This year's consignment is different from previous China-Europe freight trains dedicated to the CIIE that had mainly carried transportation, engineering and machinery products. The train that set off from Duisburg, Germany carried mostly cosmetics. The change indicates that the China-Europe freight train has turned into a new option for enterprises from Europe participating in the event, Wang Jinqiu, chairman of Shanghai Dongfang Silk Road Multi-modal Transport Co Ltd, was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

According to Wang, the number of CIIE-edition China-Europe freight trains will, for the first time, be increased to three this year, with their combined value of goods surpassing 350 million yuan ($47.96 million).

Ever since the first China-Europe freight train was launched in Shanghai two years ago, more than 140 China-Europe freight trains have left Shanghai for Europe, transporting more than 4.5 billion yuan worth of goods between Europe and Asia, said Tong Jisheng, chairman of Orient International (Holding) Co Ltd.

This year's first CIIE edition of the China-Europe freight train has greatly enhanced transportation efficiency though the application of electronic bill of lading, the Xinhua report added.

All national exhibitions will be offline in this year's CIIE, and nearly half of the countries will be physically attending the event for the first time, said Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the China International Import Expo Bureau.

Records will be set this year in terms of enterprises' exhibition area space, the number of Fortune 500 enterprises and leading industrial corporations, Sun added.

Enterprises from 171 countries and regions have participated in the past five CIIEs, and the value of intended deals reached by these companies amounted to $350 billion, according to available public information.

In the meantime, over 2,000 debut products, new technologies and services have been exhibited since the first CIIE in 2018, making the event a window for China to explore a new development pattern and build a platform for promoting high-standard opening-up.