BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Northeast China, which includes Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, is accelerating pace of opening up for better participation in the Belt and Road construction.
A traditionally industrial base for old-days booming heavy industry, the northeast China region is now heading towards a highland for cooperation through larger friend circle, new growth drivers, revitalization on all fronts.
New vitality: expanding international "circle of friends"
Construction is still busy regardless of the winter chill in Panjin city of Liaoning province.
Just a few months ago in March, global oil giant Saudi Aramco and Chinese enterprises jointly established Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Co., Ltd. Here in Panjin with an investment of over 10 billion U.S. dollars.
"This project will help build a manufacturing base, logistics hub and technology center, and help back Liaoning's revitalization and regional economy integration," noted Amin Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco.
Liaoning has expanded its "circle of friends" since 2018 with more and more foreign companies coming to invest.
For example, BMW, Saudi Aramco, and Renault S.A. of France all landed their projects here in Liaoning.
At the 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo held in Changchun of Jilin province in August this year, opportunities posed by the development and opening-up of northeast China attracted world's attention. In the eyes of German businessman Schmid, northeast China is upgrading its traditional manufacturing industry. "Northeast China could provide a lot of development opportunities for enterprises like us that focus on promoting green circular economy."
New momentum: improving international connectivity
Northeast China's Jilin province is also enhancing its world connectivity through China-Europe railway express and working to build itself an opening-up portal to the north under the Belt and Road Initiative.
The Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe international rail freight line, for example, starts from Jilin Changchun, going abroad via Manzhouli Railway Port, and passes through Russia's Siberia, Belarus's Brest, Poland's Warsaw, and ends at Germany's Nuremberg.
The whole line is about 9,800 kilometers long and a single trip takes 14 days, saving more than 20 days compared with sea transportation, noted Wang Yue, chairman of Changchun International Land Port Development Co., Ltd., the company that operates this line.
The freight line carries Chinese products such as vehicle front glasses produced by Fuyao Group (Changchun) Co., Ltd. to Audi assembly plant in Germany, and takes back commodities such as Germany-made auto parts to Volvo factory in Daqing city of Heilongjiang province, showcasing greater participation in the global economy of the industrial base.
Also, the first China-Russia cross-border railway bridge was completed this March, which further improved logistics efficiency and cut cost for transportation amid increasing China-Russia trade.
"Goods could be directly transported to Russia through the bridge, cutting logistics cost by one third and greatly shortening transportation time", said Song Xiaotao, chairman of Liyuanda Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., an enterprise that is located in Heihe city of Heilongjiang that exports construction machinery to Russia.
New opportunity: enhancing integration with B&R construction
As China opens wider to the outside world, the vitality of the old northeast industrial bases is further stimulated, with its potential further released.
"I had good talks with some famous automobile, airplane and shipbuilding enterprises this time. In the past, the equipment manufacturing industry in Liaoning was mainly concentrated in the upper and middle segment of the supply chain, and there were few high-end products directly facing the end-market and consumers. With wider opening-up and more international cooperation, we are filling that gap", said Wang Guangli, deputy director-general of the Liaoning Provincial Department of Commerce who has just returned from a European investment promotion visit.
In the first three quarters this year, Liaoning Province received 395.55 billion yuan of foreign investment, up 15.3 percent year on year.
"Enterprises of Heilongjiang province have set foot in 60 countries and contracted projects in 29 countries and regions. At present, the province has more than 2,000 enterprises doing foreign trade business every year”, said Kang Hanqing, director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Commerce.
Geographically, northeast China is located in the center region of northeast Asian countries. Northeast Asia's GDP accounts for about one-fifth of the world's total.
China will further support northeast China's opening up , enhancing its integration with the Belt and Road construction, develop and open up the northeast coastal economic belt and the border areas, and build it into an important window for China to open up northwards and a hub for regional cooperation in Northeast Asia, said Luo Wen, deputy director with the National Development and Reform Commission. (Edited by Niu Huizhe, niuhuizhe@xinhua.org)
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