[Original] Tian Jun: High-Quality Development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Guided by the New Development Concept
The China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity and the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), which General Secretary Xi Jinping has highly valued and personally planned, serve as important strategic vehicles for China’s economic diplomacy. The meeting between the heads of state of China and Singapore in Beijing has initiated a "high-quality" new era of China-Singapore cooperation; the construction of the ILSTC has become a vital driving force for upgrading China-Singapore cooperation and constructing a new development paradigm [1]. We must seize the opportunities of the times, persist in using the New Development Concept [2] as our guide, strengthen safety and strategic initiative in the construction of the ILSTC, serve the construction of the new dual circulation paradigm, create a "stability anchor" for peaceful development in Southeast and South Asia, and strive to open a new chapter in the high-quality joint construction of the ILSTC.
Innovation leads the construction of the ILSTC. Grounded in the "strategic base" of constructing the new development paradigm, we must innovate models for infrastructure investment, platform operation and management, and service capacity enhancement. We should promote a multi-dimensional and comprehensive new corridor construction—centered on railways and integrating highways, aviation, water transport, and networks—to activate the cultural and tourism resources along the route. This will enhance the cultural dynamism of the new corridor, promote the standardization and internationalization of corridor construction, and improve the energy level of ILSTC construction across all factors of production. We must grasp the massive demand for goods, capital, technology, culture, and labor inherent in the corridor's construction, while creatively utilizing the institutional mechanisms and innovative policies it entails. By aligning local strategies along the route with corridor construction and leveraging external forces such as Singapore, we can plan and lay out a series of key projects. We must give full play to the "multiplier effect" [3] of both the hard and soft infrastructure of the ILSTC, focusing on enhancing the convergence of industry, logistics, and humanistic factors along the route. We should accelerate the construction of a "Digital New Corridor," develop new business formats of "corridor economy," and comprehensively enhance the leading role of the corridor in economic and social development. By optimizing the energy level of the corridor as a functional carrier—increasing its international character, the comprehensiveness of its transport modes, and the unified diversity of its functions—we can fully utilize the corridor’s role as a bridge linking ASEAN with Central Asia and Europe. This involves building high-level international collection and distribution centers for rail, water, road, and air transport to lead a revolution in the corridor economy.
Coordination leads the construction of the ILSTC. We must deepen the strategic positioning of the ILSTC, utilize its strategic advantages in economic diplomacy, and leverage the role of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative as an operations center. This should be combined with the Master Plan for the New Western Land-Sea Trade Corridor to improve the coordination and cooperation mechanisms among provinces, regions, and municipalities along the domestic corridor. We must synergistically innovate regional development paths, promoting both the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure and the "soft connectivity" [4] of policies, rules, and standards to achieve the linkage of regional development strategies. The corridor should play a leading role in the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle [5] and the regional integration processes of Guizhou-Guangxi and Shaanxi-Gansu. We should fully mobilize the initiative and creativity of all social sectors, encouraging participation in the construction of basic platforms for transit, processing, and warehousing services. We should encourage innovation in logistics operation forms, promote the construction of logistics hubs in provinces along the route, effectively aggregate international goods, technology, and resources, and optimize the industrial spatial layout to move industries along the corridor toward the medium-to-high end of the value chain. By fully utilizing Singapore's influence and coordinating power, we can promote the formation of new mechanisms for China-Singapore cooperation, further deepening ties in customs, logistics, standards, commodity inspection, culture, and tourism. This will create more platforms for policy communication, logistics cooperation, industrial matching, and project implementation, thereby accelerating the internationalization of China's central and western regions.
Green development leads the construction of the ILSTC. "Green" is the foundational color of the ILSTC. We must integrate "Green+" into the entire process of corridor construction and operation, establishing sound "hard constraint" mechanisms for ecological environmental capacity and comprehensive coordination mechanisms for environmental protection, thereby fulfilling the political responsibility of building a green corridor. We must strictly adhere to this green foundation by promoting green infrastructure construction and emphasizing environmental governance. This includes comprehensively advancing projects such as shelterbelt forest systems, the connectivity of river and lake systems, and biodiversity protection along the route. We must focus on resolving prominent environmental issues such as soil and vegetation degradation and engineering pollution, ensuring the greening of corridor construction to resolutely protect the "lucid waters and lush mountains" [6] throughout the region. By tapping into regional resources and environmental advantages, we can deepen cooperation in green agriculture, ecological protection, and clean energy, strengthening environmental supervision and law enforcement to force a green transition. We should develop a group of characteristic industries based on ecological resources, cultivate new regional competitive advantages, and open new spaces for green economic cooperation. We must vigorously promote green logistics, promoting the efficient use of energy and resources through technological progress and management efficiency. We will standardize the implementation of corridor-specific standards for transport, storage, packaging, and loading/unloading to reduce environmental pollution and resource consumption, promoting the circular linkage of production and living systems along the corridor to create a high-starting-point, high-level, and innovative green, low-carbon corridor.
Openness leads the construction of the ILSTC. The ILSTC involves two countries (China and Singapore) and two markets (domestic and foreign, specifically Southeast and South Asia), possessing a dual-composite nature in its construction. We must effectively leverage Chongqing’s status and role as an operations center, deepening international cooperation mechanisms to form a collective force for multi-party construction. This includes attracting capital and factors from Southeast and South Asia into the corridor's construction, increasing the quality and speed of connectivity for backbone infrastructure along the route, and promoting the synergistic development of open platforms. We should accelerate the construction of institutional mechanisms for trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, innovate international trade rules for land transport and multimodal transport, and improve the modern logistics system for international multimodal transport. This will expand market space along the corridor for goods, capital, technology, as well as processing, entrepôt, and service trade. Strategically planning international and regional factor markets will promote the innovative integration of factor resources between the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the Indochina Peninsula, greatly enhancing the ILSTC’s ability to aggregate and allocate resources in the global market and jointly building an ILSTC (International) Economic Corridor. By giving full play to cooperation mechanisms in education, culture, tourism, health, local government, and youth, we can vigorously promote international "sister city" strategies and close cultural exchange, driving China's central and western regions to participate in RCEP [7] economic and trade cooperation and fulfilling the corridor’s function of being a good, helpful neighbor.
Sharing leads the construction of the ILSTC. Based on the overall situation of building Chinese-path modernization, we must deepen the promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative and share the opportunities for security and strategic initiative inherent in the ILSTC's construction. By effectively functioning as a major hub and key node, we can accelerate investment in the foundational and auxiliary construction and functional upgrading of the ILSTC. This will comprehensively improve the level of infrastructure interconnectivity along the corridor and allow for the sharing of new demands in the regional consumer market formed by new-type urbanization and the new layout of population factors. We should creatively utilize the "fusion" and "fission" effects of corridor construction to promote the building of international logistics centers in provinces along the route, improving the system of basic platforms for transit, processing, and warehousing. This will efficiently aggregate international goods, technology, and resources, optimizing the industrial layout and promoting the linkage and integration of regions such as Chengdu-Chongqing, Chongqing-Guizhou, and Guizhou-Guangxi, while sharing in the reconstruction of regional industrial, value, and innovation chains. Supported by big data platforms, we will integrate information resources from government departments, industry dynamics, environmental resources, investment needs, and cultural environments along the route (including overseas) to build an authoritative and unified information platform, sharing in the high-quality construction and high-level operation of the ILSTC. Humanistic empowerment will enhance the level of the export-oriented economy in the central and western regions, expanding the fields of cultural investment and services and allowing for the sharing of convenient and comfortable humanistic services such as cultural exchange and tourism.
(The author’s affiliation: Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences)