Speaking at the Industrial Development Conference for National Central City, Chengdu held on Sunday, Chen Zhongwei, director of the Chengdu Ports and Logistics Administration Office, said that the "Belt and Road" Initiative and building of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone bring unprecedented opportunities to Chengdu's supply chain development.

Driven by this, Chengdu will further promote resource integration, transform the way of thinking, boost the growth of the industry chain and value chain based on the development of supply chain, and construct a "Belt and Road" global supply chain hub.

With the advancement of the "Belt and Road" Initiative, the Southwestern city is growing into a port city that connects to Pan-European and Pan-Asian regions and now targets South China, casting off the image of a traditional inland city that is neither near the border nor next to the sea, Chen said.

Meanwhile, the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone located in Chengdu serves as a platform that integrates key elements of global supply chains. This gives local enterprises chances to be deeply involved in global materials procurement, global productivity distribution, and global product marketing, and to be highly integrated into the global supply chain system, Chen noted. On this basis, Chengdu will establish a logistics system that links Europe with Asia and features a global reach. Chen underscored that the city has its unique advantages and core competitiveness when developing supply chains.

"We will develop a comprehensive 'Asia-Chengdu-Europe' supply chain service platform, expecting to get more than 1,000 supply chain service enterprises on board in five years. The goal is to create an ecosystem boasting the integration of information flow, product flow, logistics, and capital flow, and make Chengdu an international freight distribution center, service trade operation center, and cross-border RMB settlement center, so as to boost the volume of imports and exports by more than 1 trillion yuan," Chen told reporters.   

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn