On September 15, 2023, the “China-Europe Express Railway Cooperation Forum” was held in Lianyungang, China, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Chinese “One Belt - One Road” initiative.
The main goal of the forum is to further deepen cooperation between countries along the China-Europe express train and promote the Belt and Road Initiative.
The forum was organized by the State Development and Reform Committee of the People's Republic of China, the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China, the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China, the China State Railway Corporation and the people's governments of Jiangsu Province, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Henan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Xinjiang.
The opening ceremony of the forum was attended by the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Roman Sklyar, the Deputy Prime Minister of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Ding Xuexiang, as well as the leaders of Jiangsu Province and honored foreign guests.
The forum participants included more than 500 representatives of China and 29 regional countries, guests from political, business and academic circles, as well as transport and logistics organizations of countries located along the China-Europe railway express, ASEAN countries, including government delegations from China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Mongolia and other countries located along the China-Europe route.
A delegation of the International Association “Trans-Caspian International Transport Route” (hereinafter referred to as the TITR Association) headed by the Secretary General of the organization Gaidar Abdikerimov also took part in the forum. The delegation consisted of representatives of members of the TITR Association from Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Georgian Railway JSC, NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC, NC Aktau Sea Trade Port JSC and Kaskor-Transservice JSC.
During the forum, a Framework Agreement on cooperation was signed between members of the TITR Association and the leading logistics platforms of the PRC, representing 9 provinces of the PRC. This agreement is intended to intensify the work and interaction between TITR participants and Chinese logistics platforms to attract Chinese container flows to the TITR route, as well as the development of the route as a whole.
The speaker at the plenary session was the Deputy General Secretary of the TITR Association, Saut Shynybayev, who informed the forum participants about the activities of the association and the prospects for the development of the TITR route.
During the forum, the TITR delegation held a number of business meetings with representatives of transport and logistics companies in China and other foreign countries
On September 16, 2023, the delegation of the Association paid a technical visit to the Lianyungang port and the Kazakh-Chinese logistics terminal in the Lianyungang port, where they got acquainted with the work of the port and terminal, as well as their long-term development plans.
Since 2017 Lianyungang Port Holdings Group Co., Ltd. is a member of the TITR Association. Through the Kazakh-Chinese logistics terminal in the port of Lianyungang, cargo is processed from the countries of Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region traveling both to Kazakhstan and through its territory along the TITR route to the countries of Europe and Turkey, as well as in the opposite direction.
