The China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has witnessed growing business cooperation between the two nations.
Opened in 2014, the base has handled over 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo through direct China-Europe freight trains over the past decade.
The railway link between east China's Lianyungang port and Kazakhstan, the world's largest landlocked country, has helped to improve trade.
Azilkhan Bedelov from Kazakhstan's capital of Astana has been working at the China-Kazakhstan logistics base since 2017.
"Kazakhstan is an inland nation. It has no access to the sea. Now the railway provides a good option," said Bedelov, who is the deputy general manager of China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Company now.
The logistics base facilitates bilateral trade, allowing products from countries like South Korea and Japan to be exported to Kazakhstan, and for Kazakhstan's products to go abroad.
"Most products are general goods and machinery equipment from China, and vehicles in transit," said Ge Hengxue, general manager of China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Company.
Last year, a system was introduced allowing processes to be updated in real time at the cargo departure point and destination.
"If there were no such system, the Kazakhstan side would not know the trains and containers were shipped on time. There would be a lag," said Cheng Fei, dispatch team leader of the company.
The streamlined trade route now shortens the transportation time from Lianyungang to Kazakhstan's largest city of Almaty to just 6.5 days.
China-Kazakhstan logistics center boosts business cooperation in decade
Former UN Under-Secretary-General Erik Solheim has called for greater global cooperation and trade dialogue with China, highlighting the country's rapid expansion in green technology and renewable energy.
Solheim emphasized that China plays a key role in global governance, citing its progress over the past decade in addressing environmental degradation and curbing pollution.
"China is now the indispensable leader for the green transformation and the leader in poverty alleviation. So the world has a lot to learn from Chinese experiences, and China should make those lessons available for other nations to learn from," said Solheim.
Reflecting on the past decade, Solheim highlighted that China has transitioned from a passive participant to a dominant force in green technology.
"The biggest change in the last 10 years is that China has moved from somewhat in the back seat on the environment at that time and now being the leader on every green development. And whatever green technology you can mention, China is totally dominant and has brought it down in price, which is an enormous service to the world," said Solheim.
"But China has also been fantastic in establishing national parks in tree planting, in curbing pollution. So it's so refreshing, so important China has been able to do moving from back seat to the front seat on the environment," he said.
Solheim also highlighted China's contribution to global renewable energy, noting that its industrial scale has driven down costs and made clean technology affordable around the world.
"You go green and you go prosperous. That's by far the most important gift from China to the world. Indonesia, Ethiopia, Brazil, they all want Chinese investment. And China can drive electric cars, solar panels, windmills in all these nations. You see a lot of that, but we want to see more so that technology is shared and so that jobs and prosperity is growing," he said.
"The big issue here is that China is now so super efficient making solar panels or electric cars so much better than anyone else, that there is a scary affair in Europe and that Europe is not competitive. You may say that in the past when Europe dominated the car industry, no one was worried, but now when China is dominating electric cars, Europe is very worried. So the solution to this in my view is more joint ventures, companies and constant trade negotiations to find the right balance between the Chinese efficiency and the European desire for jobs in Europe. Because the alternative to that is protectionism, that will simply make everyone more poor. Protectionism will harm Europe and it will harm China and we should avoid it," he added.
Beyond economic ties, Solheim called for expanded cultural and educational exchanges. Increased tourism and student visits would help foster mutual understanding and deepen cross-cultural dialogue between Europe and China, he noted.
Former UN official highlights China's green transformation, urges EU-China dialogue
