The first freight train of the Loudi-Huaihua China-Laos Railway was launched on December 26. The signing ceremony of a strategic cooperation agreement on jointly constructing and sharing the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor was held simultaneously.

The train loaded with goods worth 6.34 million yuan, including small and medium-sized agricultural machinery, household enamel products, and sports equipment, is scheduled to head for Laos, the Philippines, the United States, and other countries.

The route is a new international trade passage in Loudi, following after the launch of Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal train service. Previously, Loudi enterprises mainly exported their products via road-rail intermodal trains running along the China-Laos Railway. Now the goods can be transported directly by freight trains running along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, which provides better international logistics services and reduces logistics costs for these enterprises.

In recent years, Loudi City has taken the initiative to integrate into the construction of the province's five major international trade channels, encouraging local foreign trade enterprises to carry out import and export business through the channels, and giving these enterprises a subsidy of no more than 30% of their expenses in logistics, hoisting, and warehousing. Since the launch of the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal transport service, Loudi has seen its shipments surge 450%, and enterprises have reduced logistics costs by about 40%. The cooperation between Loudi and Huaihua will further improve Loudi's "road, rail, water, and air" multimodal transport system, and accelerate the construction of an open pattern boosting the flow of people and goods.

From January to November this year, 245 foreign trade enterprises in Loudi registered actual performances. The companies' total import and export value reached 16.39 billion yuan, with imports and exports standing at 8.94 billion yuan and 7.45 billion yuan respectively. The import and export structure of Loudi City has been optimized steadily.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn