The China-Singapore Interconnectivity Project, with Chongqing as the operational centre, is the third intergovernmental cooperation project established by China and Singapore. The project has always prioritised the development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
Yu Hong, a senior researcher at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore, recently shared his distinctive insights into the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
Participation in Corridor Construction Benefits Singapore's Trade Position
The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has become a key cooperation project between China and Singapore. Yu Hong believes that Singapore's joint participation with China in the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor helps to consolidate Singapore's position as a regional and global maritime trade hub. In recent years, China-Singapore economic and trade cooperation has been continuously strengthened, showing strong vitality and resilience. China has been Singapore's largest trading partner for ten consecutive years, and Singapore has been China's largest source of new investment for ten consecutive years. Companies from both countries have jointly developed the "Belt and Road" market and have achieved fruitful results in infrastructure, financial technology, legal services, and third-party market cooperation. Many Singaporean companies have been deeply involved and operating in China's coastal areas. With the Land-Sea Trade Corridor, Singaporean companies can better participate in the economic development of China's western regions and lay out in the vast market of Western China.
Corridor Construction Enhances the Internationalisation Level of Western China
As is well known, transportation and logistics conditions have always been an important factor constraining the development of Western China. Yu Hong believes that the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor can enhance the internationalisation level of the western regions, activate the vitality of Western China, accelerate the industrialisation process of the regions along the corridor, and create more employment opportunities. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor provides convenient and direct access to the sea for Western Chinese provinces including Chongqing and Guangxi, and it is also the most convenient maritime trade corridor connecting Western China with Southeast Asia. On the one hand, it can attract Singaporean companies to invest; on the other hand, products from Western China, including Guangxi and Chongqing, can enter Singapore and the ASEAN and even the global market through this corridor.
Yu Hong introduced that ASEAN has been Guangxi's largest trading partner for many years. The Land-Sea Trade Corridor assists Guangxi in advancing a comprehensive strategy of opening up to the outside world, which helps to enhance the level of Guangxi's opening up to the outside world. With the opening and construction and operation of this Land-Sea Trade Corridor, the trade scale between Guangxi and ASEAN is continuously expanding, which is a very encouraging phenomenon.
Attracting More Countries and Regions to Participate in Corridor Construction
It is understood that the main challenge faced by the construction of the International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is the insufficient source of goods, and the imbalance between southbound and northbound cargo transportation is quite prominent. Yu Hong believes that it is necessary to attract not only more companies from the western regions but also companies from ASEAN countries and Central Asian countries to actively participate, in order to achieve the economic scale effect of this Land-Sea Trade Corridor, effectively reduce logistics and transportation costs, enhance the development momentum of the Land-Sea Corridor, and achieve its long-term sustainable development.
To attract companies from ASEAN countries and Central Asian countries to use the Land-Sea Trade Corridor, China and Singapore need to cooperate better to enhance the commercial attractiveness of the Land-Sea Trade Corridor. It is also necessary for the corridor to further reduce the transportation costs of goods, improve the facilitation of customs clearance, and improve the operational efficiency of the corridor, making this corridor more commercially attractive—I believe this is the key to attracting more companies from ASEAN and Central Asian countries to use this corridor. At the same time, I think China and Singapore can better leverage their respective national brand advantages to promote and introduce the International Land-Sea Trade Corridor internationally, to better and more conveniently transport goods to the western regions of China, to the potential market of consumers in the western regions. I think this promotional work needs to be further strengthened to enhance the visibility and influence of the International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
About the author:
Yu Hong
Senior Researcher at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore
Acknowledgements: China News Service Chongqing Branch, China News Service Guangxi Branch