BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese logistics giants are speeding up their layouts in the Belt and Road markets with the support of favorable policies aiming at stabilizing the foreign trade amid the COVID-19 epidemic, reported Securities Daily Tuesday.
In order to secure stable foreign trade amid the epidemic, the Chinese authorities involving transport, commerce, customs, railway, aviation and state post, jointly issued a circular with China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., proposing measures to forge a sound logistics environment for foreign trade by smoothing the transport channels, cutting the import and export logistics costs, etc.
Cainiao Network, Alibaba's delivery arm, has managed to maintain the operation of its global logistics network amid the epidemic, and kept transporting parcels from hundreds of thousands of merchants to key Belt and Road regions every day.
On April 10, the company announced that its cross-border e-commerce logistics orders have returned to the pre-epidemic level.
ZTO Express, another leading express delivery company in China, on February 19 started trial operation of its transit center in Bangkok, Thailand, and its express service network covers the entire territory of Thailand.
BEST Inc. (NYSE: BEST), a leading integrated smart supply chain and logistics solutions provider in China, started to provide logistics and supply services as early as 2018 to Southeast Asian countries which were once hailed as the "first stop" of the Belt and Road.
The express delivery business of BEST Inc. is booming in Southeast Asia, and as of the end of December 2019, the service network had covered the whole territory of Thailand and 91 percent of the territory of Vietnam, said a source from the company.
Shanghai courier YTO Express started the international express package business in Vietnam in November 2019.
"So far, the air services of YTO Express have covered Southeast Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and other Belt and Road countries. Apart from a B737F all-cargo aircraft, the company has also put another five B757 all-cargo carriers in service to provide nationwide and global air transport services," said a staff from the company.
Driven by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the trade between China and the Belt and Road countries and regions is growing fast, yielding rapid expansion of logistics demand and market capacity, and early deployment in the logistics systems of these markets is conducive to seizing market share ahead of time and gaining benefits in the future, noted Tao Jin, a senior researcher with Suning Financial Research Institute.
"The engagement of Chinese logistics firms in the construction of local logistics infrastructure will significantly improve the trade efficiency of Belt and Road countries, reduce trade transaction costs, and thus promote the growth of trade with China," he believed. (Edited by Gu Shanshan with Xinhua Silk Road, gushanshan.1987@163.com)
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