Henan strives to become a hub serving the Belt and Road Initiative

Three years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out during an inspection tour to Henan that the province should “buy global and sell global” and develop a transportation and logistics hub that links the north and south ends of the province and connects the east and west ends in order to make more contributions along the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Since then, Henan has worked toward the goal and has made some achievements. Shu Qing, vice governor of the province, said at a press conference in Beijing on May 12 that the provincial government is taking full advantage of the Zhengzhou Comprehensive Experimental Zone for Airport-based Economy to strengthen its connections with countries along the Belt and Road routes.

"Henan province has 34 air freight lines, of which 29 are international lines. The air freight lines delivered 475,000 metric tons of cargo and mail in 2016, and imports and exports account for half of the total volume," said Shu. In addition, six ports in operation are available for importing fresh agricultural and livestock products, which boosts trade with other countries.

Located in central China, the unique geographical position of Henan allows the province to take advantage of economic opportunities along the Belt and Road.

According to Shu, the Zhengzhou-Europe Block Train completed 251 trips in 2016, with a total value of delivered cargo of more than 1.2 billion US dollars and a total cargo weight of about 1.2 billion tons. This year, four pairs of fully loaded cargo trains started running on a weekly service between the Chinese city of Zhengzhou and the German city of Hamburg.

Among the seven new free trade zones recently launched in China, Henan’s trading zone differs from the others in that it will be built into a national transport and logistics hub. Since Henan’s free trade zone was officially launched on April 1 this year, 2,882enterprises have settled in it.

International trade between Henan and Belt and Road economies totaled 80.2 billion yuan in 2016, an increase of 15.4 percent, said Shu. “We want to better serve countries along the Belt and Road and achieve the goal of ‘buy global and sell global.’”

Shu Qing, vice governor of Henan province in central China delivers a speech at a press conference at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, May 12, 2017. (People’s Daily/Weng Qiyu)