In recent years, Xinjiang has closely followed the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and its trade cooperation with Central Asia has become closer and closer, and the areas of cooperation have become more and more extensive. A few days ago, a car carrying 84-meter-long wind turbine blades slowly drove out of the Baktu Port in Tacheng, Xinjiang, and headed for Kazakhstan.

Yan Tong, the production manager of Sany Tacheng Wind Power Equipment Co., Ltd., said that the equipment will be used in the Dostyk wind power project in Kazakhstan. The project includes 8 wind turbines with a unit capacity of 6,250 kilowatts and a total installed capacity of 50 megawatts. After landing, it will inject strong kinetic energy into the chain extension, supplementary chain and strong chain of Kazakhstan's wind power clean energy industry chain.

As a border province open to the west of China, Xinjiang has 17 national first-class ports open all year round, 11 of which face Central Asia. Since the beginning of this year, several ports in Xinjiang are carrying out targeted infrastructure improvement projects to further weave and strengthen the opening-up meridian network.

At the Baktu port, the special railway line project of the International Logistics Park and the preliminary work of the Baktu-Ayaguz railway in Kazakhstan are progressing steadily.

At the Alashankou Port, the construction of the second line of the Jinghe-Alashankou section of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway is progressing smoothly. After the project is completed and put into operation, the customs clearance capacity and efficiency from Alashankou to Central Asia and Europe will be greatly improved.

At the Irkeshtan port, the Z-shaped port road problem that hinders freight efficiency is expected to be resolved by building bridges and expanding roads.

Cars parked in front of Baktu Port, these cars will be sent to Central Asia and Europe after customs clearance

The 32-year-old Kyrgyzstan truck driver Atem Sara has been on the international freight line for 8 years. In these years, he has really felt the great changes in Irkeshtan Port.

The accommodation conditions at the port have improved, and there are more job opportunities. Atem Sara said. He used to travel between China and Kyrgyzstan once a month, but now, with the increasingly close economic and trade exchanges between the two countries, he travels on this route at least three times a month.

Not only has the frequency of operations increased and income has increased, but Atem Sara’s goods have also expanded from department stores at the beginning to electromechanical products and cross-border e-commerce goods.

In recent years, relying on its location advantages, Xinjiang has accelerated the establishment of various open platforms such as development and opening up pilot zones, border economic cooperation zones, and comprehensive bonded areas, and promoted the transformation of the trade industry from a single channel economy to a port economy and an industrial economy.

At present, 15 bonded processing enterprises have settled in the Alashankou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and Alashankou Jinshahe Noodle Industry Co., Ltd. is one of them. The company uses wheat imported from Kazakhstan to produce Hamai noodles, which are very popular in the Chinese market. Yin Feihong, the person in charge of the company, said that in March 2023, the company signed a 50,000-ton wheat import contract with a Kazakh company, and the first batch of wheat has arrived at the Alashankou Comprehensive Bonded Zone by rail.

As of May 13, in 2023, the Alashankou Comprehensive Bonded Zone has opened 18 special lines for bulk grain railways, with a total of 56,970 tons of grain imported from Central Asia. Returning to Kyrgyzstan from Xinjiang this time, Atem Sara was driving an international road transport vehicle.

In May 2018, the international road transport system was officially implemented in China, and the Irkeshtan Port became one of the first pilot ports in the country. TIR vehicles only need to go through customs formalities at the place of departure and destination, and are exempted from customs inspections in transit countries. Minawar Ilam, deputy chief of the Irkeshtan Customs Supervision Section in Xinjiang, said that this can greatly improve the efficiency of international trade and reduce transportation costs.

Minawar Ilam said that with the continuous development of trade between China and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other countries, the Irkeshtan port will play a greater role in international road freight.

According to Urumqi Customs statistics, in the first quarter of 2023, Xinjiang's import and export trade volume with the five Central Asian countries reached 53.18 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 84.5%, accounting for 78.1% of Xinjiang's total foreign trade value during the same period. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are Xinjiang's top three trading partners.Editor/Ma Xue