Truck rally writes new chapter in silk road legend

The trucks reach Huoyan Mountain, known as the flaming mountain, in the Tuyugou Grand Valley in Xinjiang. WANG YU/CHINA DAILY

Vice-Premier Wang Yang also said during the expo that China is willing to provide financial support for countries along the route in the process of infrastructure construction, adding that the belt will promote interaction among the Silk Road economies through an efficient, convenient and barrier-free system for freight movement.

By the end of 2013, China had signed 15 bilateral or multilateral agreements with 12 countries along the proposed belt to facilitate the transportation of cargo by road. More than 35 million metric tons of freight were transported to or from China last year, according to Xu Yahua, a senior official with the Road Transport Department from the Transport Ministry.

Newly built transport channels linking China and Central Asia include six cross-border roads, two railways, one pipeline and eight border ports, according to Xinhua News Agency.

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"Despite reform and opening-up making us the second-largest economy in the world after the United States, the development gap between our eastern, coastal regions and the western, inland regions keeps expanding," the organizing committee of the rally said in a statement on its website.

"The stronger protectionism in Western markets, and the fact that the trade with Western economies is still being haunted by the financial crisis' aftershock require us to look to, and keep closer ties with our inland neighbors in Central Asia."

Though the rally has more symbolic significance rather than the practical value, it could be deemed as a preview for a joint endeavor by governments along the Silk Road Economic Belt to set up a comprehensive logistics network, experts said.

A modern logistics sector will pave the way for the sustainable growth of manufacturing and trade industries while bonding producers, traders and consumers from different countries through better connectivity, said Wang Ming, deputy director of Institute of Comprehensive Transportation under the National Development and Reform Commission.

In addition, an expert urged that China should adopt a permit for the international transport of goods in sealed load compartments by road in a bid to facilitate its trade in the international Silk Road linking the country with Eurasia regions.

Umberto de Pretto, secretary general of the International Road Transport Union, said 58 countries have become members of the Transports Internationaux Routiers agreements, in particular those in Europe.

The TIR permit excuses container trucks from member countries arriving in other member countries from needing to deposit a guarantee to cover duties and taxes at transit borders.

"However, against the backdrop of the Chinese government's call to boost the Silk Road economic belt, the logistics sector in China is unaware of the permit," he said.

During the rally, experts and officials also paid visits to a series of companies and industrial parks in Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Yinchuan and Lanzhou and they joined a seminar hosted by leading logistics firm Hezhong Logistics.

Some trainings on logistics and driving skills were held.

The author Wang Yu is chief editor, Transport Construction & Management and New Media, Li Jigang is the PR director of the Media of Transport under the China Academy of Transportation Sciences and Zhao Lei is a China Daily reporter.