Located in Budapest, Hungary, the Sino-European Trade and Logistics Cooperation Zone is the first overseas economic and trade cooperation zone for trade and logistics built by China in Europe, and it is also the only national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone for trade and logistics. Over the past 10 years, Wu Jiang, CEO of the China-Europe Business and Logistics Cooperation Park, not only witnessed the development of the park, but also witnessed the process of upgrading the quality of cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

Build a platform for Chinese enterprises to go global

Wujiang has been engaged in business logistics in Hungary for more than 30 years. According to him, the idea of establishing a Sino-European cooperation park dates back to 2011. In June of that year, the first China-CEEC Economic and Trade Forum was held in Hungary. China is willing to work with the Central and Eastern European countries to promote the development of economic and trade cooperation on a larger scale, in a wider field and at a higher level. This is highly consistent with the "open to the east" policy proposed by the Hungarian government.

"Since then, we have seen brilliant prospects for cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries, so we came up with the idea of creating a Sino-European trade and logistics cooperation park," recalled Wu Jiang. At that time, Wu Jiang, who had been working in Hungary for many years, knew that it was not easy for Chinese companies to go global, especially those that had just gone abroad. When they want to develop overseas, there is usually a tortuous experience at the beginning. Moreover, there is a platform similar to the park, which can provide various services for enterprises to go overseas, which will greatly reduce the difficulty of enterprises going overseas.

According to reports, in the early stage of the construction of the park, some domestic small and medium-sized enterprises came to cooperate. They came to Hungary to sell light industrial products such as clothing, shoes and hats, and tried to enter the Central and Eastern European market. In recent years, we can see more and more large enterprises come here for deeper market layout.

Cai Bin, the general agent of Gree Electric Appliances in Hungary, was deeply touched by the bridge function of the park. Since Hungarian Gree Electric entered the park in 2016, relying on the park's platform, logistics and warehousing resources, its business volume has grown significantly. Compared with the beginning of the park, sales in 2021 have increased seven or eight times. "After our goods arrive, they will be stored in the warehouse in the park, and then when we place an order, they will directly help us deliver it to the supermarket in Hungary, which is very convenient for us." Cai Bin said.

Land, sea and air three-dimensional logistics network

Hungary is located in the center of Europe and has a very unique geographical advantage. In recent years, China-Hungary economic and trade cooperation has continued to develop. With the continuous increase in the trade volume of enterprises in the park, their demand for logistics has become more and more urgent. In 2017, the development of the park ushered in a new milestone. On June 16, the first train from Changsha to Budapest operated by the park arrived in Budapest. The train, which contains 41 containers of Chinese goods, is the first China-Europe train to enter EU countries via Ukraine.

"The opening of the Ukraine-Hungary passage is a very beneficial supplement to the entire China-Europe freight train passage." Wu Jiang pointed out that compared with the traditional "north line" of China-Europe freight trains entering the EU from Poland, this "south line" avoids the Baibo port. congestion, "shorter transport distances and faster time frames".

Afterwards, the park cooperated with various domestic railway platforms to successively operate a number of China-Europe freight trains, such as Xi'an to Budapest, Jinan to Budapest, Ganzhou to Budapest, Linyi to Budapest, etc. After the goods of the China-Europe freight train arrived in Hungary, they entered the EU market through customs declaration. Some stay in Hungary, most go to other Central and Eastern European countries, and even some countries in Western and Southern Europe.

On January 29, 2017, the park cooperated with COSCO SHIPPING Group, and the "China-Europe Land-Sea Express Intermodal Transport" was officially opened. The goods from Ningbo and Shenzhen in China arrive at the port of Piraeus in Greece by sea, and then arrive in Budapest by container train. On October 21, 2020, the regular cargo charter flight from Zhengzhou to Budapest was officially opened, and the "Air Silk Road" connecting China and Hungary was established. So far, the park has built a three-dimensional logistics and transportation network connecting China and Europe.

Ghibli Logistics is one of the first companies to settle in the park. The company is deeply involved in logistics and transportation between China and Central and Eastern European countries. In this regard, the company's CEO Shaub Zoltan is very proud: "I am proud that we are the first company to send an export train to China, and I am also proud that we are working with COSCO to transport the goods from Piraeus Proud to deliver to Budapest.”

Build more business logistics parks

From the China Commodity Exchange Exhibition Center in the 15th district of Budapest, to the Cepel port logistics park on the Danube River in the 21st district, and then to the cross-border e-commerce logistics park in Bremen, Germany, the business of the Sino-European Trade and Logistics Cooperation Park has expanded from international trade to logistics and transportation, and finally Expand to industrial investment. Over the past 10 years, with the deepening of cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries, the park, a bridge for economic and trade exchanges between China and Europe, has been continuously upgraded.

As of 2021, the park has invested 135 million US dollars, and 175 enterprises have settled in it, including 50 Chinese-funded holding companies, with a trade volume of nearly 2.7 billion US dollars, driving and driving the direct and indirect exports of domestic enterprises to 4.2 billion US dollars. Huawei, Wanhua, Bosch, Siemens, Audi, Samsung and many other well-known domestic and foreign brands have become key service enterprises in the park.

Wu Jiang said that the original intention of creating the park was not to attract investment, but with the development of international commerce and trade, the logistics industry has also risen, and the mutual promotion of commerce and logistics has driven Chinese enterprises to invest in Hungary. "The market is there, the supply chain is connected, and investment will come." With the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in recent years, the China-EU Commerce and Logistics Cooperation Park is actively deploying overseas warehouse construction and supporting logistics services.

On January 26, 2021, the park signed a cooperation agreement with the China (Ganzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Experimental Zone to jointly operate the Ganzhou-Budapest cross-border e-commerce train and build a cross-border e-commerce train under the China-Hungary "two-zone linkage" mechanism. E-commerce digital ports and digital parks to build a digital supply chain service system.

Facing the future, the park is actively promoting the construction of China-Europe Logistics Industrial Park and Watts Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park. The China-Europe Logistics Industrial Park project plans to build the most modern multimodal logistics center in Europe in Zahoni, Hungary, and expand the Zahoni changing station into a modern train changing station, which will greatly improve the freight volume and efficiency of China-Europe trains. Watts Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park, located 30 kilometers north of Budapest, plans to build a 20,000-square-meter smart warehouse, mainly providing cross-border e-commerce warehousing services. The warehouse will be equipped with intelligent robots capable of handling 45,000 to 55,000 items per hour. At present, some warehousing projects have entered the stage of preparation for implementation. Keywords: One Belt One Road, One Belt One Road News, One Belt One Road Project

Wujiang is full of confidence in the future development of the park. As China and Central and Eastern European countries join hands to build a high-quality Belt and Road, "there are more big projects, and we hope to serve these Belt and Road projects by building more trade and logistics parks."Editor/XuNing