China has strengthened mutually beneficial trade cooperation with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with import growth outpacing that of exports in the first three quarters of this year, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Wednesday.
Liang Linchong, director of the Department of Regional Opening-up of NDRC, told a press conference in Beijing that China has signed BRI cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations.
Connectivity under the BRI framework continues to expand. Cumulative trips by China-Europe freight trains have surpassed 140,000, with services now reaching 237 cities across 26 European countries. International container shipping routes link China to more than 100 countries and regions worldwide, while the "Air Silk Road" connects 159 cities in 66 participating countries.
Since 2024, the value of China's goods trade with BRI partners has consistently accounted for more than half of the country's total foreign trade, the official said.
"In the first three quarters of this year, China's imports from the BRI participating countries grew by 17.9 percent, 1.3 percentage points higher than that of exports. It reflects an increasingly clear trend of two-way engagement and mutually beneficial cooperation. At the same time, China has actively promoted the signing of free trade agreements with these participating countries and deepened cooperation in areas such as customs, inspection and quarantine, and certification and accreditation, enhancing the level of trade liberalization and facilitation," said Liang.
The NDRC also highlighted progress in the opening up of China's central and western regions. In the first 10 months of this year, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a key logistics route linking western China to global markets, handled 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo. The operation of Pinglu Canal, China's first major river-to-sea canal project, is also advancing opening up in the area.
In the first three quarters, foreign trade in the central and western regions accounted for 18.7 percent of the national total, up 7.4 percentage points from the same period in 2013, according to the NDRC.
China's BRI imports outpace exports as trade ties deepen
China's BRI imports outpace exports as trade ties deepen
