ASEAN’s View on Cooperation on the Southern Transport Corridor

Written by Chen Libing / Translated by Wu Sheng

China-ASEAN Port Cities Cooperation Network Work Conference

A cargo ship carrying industrial goods set off from Indonesia’s Kepulauan Riau via Singapore to Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, China through the Southern Transport Corridor, where the goods could be transported to Chongqing by rail. At Chongqing Tuanjie Village railway container center, electronic products from Vietnam underwent logistics transfer to freight trains of China Railway Express and were sent to Europe. And thanks to the Southern Transport Corridor, it only took nine days for Thailand’s exported fruits to arrive at Chongqing Port via Mohan Port in Yunnan Province.

In less than a year, an increasing number of high-quality and inexpensive goods from Southeast Asia have been transported to western provinces and municipalities of China, including Chongqing, through the Southern Transport Corridor.However, the appeal of the Southern Transport Corridor is not confined to China. With its accelerated development, more and more ASEAN countries have placed high expectations on the Southern Transport Corridor, and expressed their strong desire to participate in its construction.

Sea-rail transport bringing new development opportunities to the Southern Transport Corridor

“The goods exported from China to Southeast Asia and vice versa could be transported through the south-north Southern Transport Corridor, and then to Europe through the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe Railway,” said Teo Siong Seng, Chairman of Singapore Business Federation in a joint interview. He said that the Southern Transport Corridor would bring new development opportunities to the trade and logistics industry for the regions along the routes in ASEAN countries and western China, and therefore, it had won widespread support from these countries and regions.

According to Pornchai Tarkulwaranont, Advisor to the Minister of Commerce of Thailand, apart from boosting regional connectivity, the Southern Transport Corridor can also promote regional cooperation in industry, service sector and tertiary industry. “The Southern Transport Corridor not only includes infrastructure development such as roads and airports, but also drives the coordinated development of industry and tertiary industry including service and tourism sectors of surrounding areas. I believe that the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor will produce win-win benefits for both China and Thailand,” he said.

Laos, the only landlocked country in ASEAN, also has great expectations for this new international channel, and hopes to get involved in its construction. “As a landlocked country,we need to make better use of our advantages on land,” said Santisouk Simmalavong, Vice Minister of Public Works and Transport of Laos. He said that at present, Laos is exploring how to better build a new trade channel and draw up a master plan to deliver benefits to the people along it. “Laos will be a link between China and Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.We are building the China-Laos Railway, which is part of the China-Laos Economic Corridor. Now 30 percent of the construction work has been fi nished, and it is expected to be completed in 2021. I believe that the China-Laos Railway will bring great benefits to the people along it.”

Cooperation giving impetus to the Southern Transport Corridor

On May 18, 2018, a two-way freight train route linking Qinzhou Port with Kunming in Yunnan Province was inaugurated, which marked Yunnan’s engagement in the Southern Transport Corridor. Together with the previously launched Qinzhou Port-Chongqing and Qinzhou Port-Chengdu routes, the areas covered by the Southern Transport Corridor have become larger and the influence broader.

Experts attribute the success of the Southern Transport Corridor to the high logistics efficiency with multimodal transport. However, how to coordinate the trans-industrial and cross-regional development remains the biggest challenge in the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor. So,how should the regions along the Southern Transport Corridor cooperate to tackle this problem?

According to Nguyen Cong Truong, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Vietnam’s Lang Son Province, to better advance the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation in four aspects: First, strengthening information exchanges to facilitate import and export trade; second, enhancing connectivity of infrastructure, especially roads and railways;third, intensifying exchanges and cooperation between Vietnam and municipalities and counties in Guangxi’s border areas, and between relevant departments of both sides, so as to boost mutual understanding and trust; forth, working with Guangxi to ensure the safety of border areas and prevent cross-border crimes.

Among these four aspects, priorities should be given to enhancing connectivity of infrastructure and information exchanges. “We must ensure a high degree of information connectivity, because when participating in the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor, some enterprises in western China may have little knowledge of modern logistics,or some areas are seeing poor logistics development. So, it is very important to strengthen information exchanges among logistics practitioner for greater efficiency and accuracy of customs declaration,” said Teo Siong Seng. He also suggested promoting logistics information exchanges and cooperation between China and ASEAN, pushing forward the China-ASEAN Multimodal Transport Alliance, appropriately cutting the costs of rail transport, and increasing the number of cargo ships for maritime transport. “We are working toward the establishment of the China-ASEAN Multimodal Transport Alliance in Nanning. With its establishment,the China-ASEAN logistics system will be transferred to Nanning, which can be an information hub that brings together information about customs declaration and fi nance.This will greatly enhance the efficiency of two-way logistics between China and ASEAN,” he said.

With regard to infrastructure, Pornchai Tarkulwaranont holds that investment in areas with weak infrastructure should be increase to facilitate the development of the Southern Transport Corridor. “The Southern Transport Corridor connects many countries and regions. Some of them have strong infrastructure, such as Thailand, which boasts abundant resources in roads, air and maritime,while others are plagued by poor infrastructure and require growing investment. In the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor, there inevitably are some limitations and bottlenecks for some countries. Dealing with these obstacles will be of great significance for building the Southern Transport Corridor,” he said. In addition, he suggested synergizing the Southern Transport Corridor with Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor to achieve greater regional connectivity.

In an interview withChina-ASEAN Panorama, Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, said that China and Vietnam could enhance the synergy of China’s Belt and Road Initiative with Vietnam’s “Two Corridors and One Economic Circle” plan, forge closer cooperation in roads and ports,thus to move forward with the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor. “Joining the China-ASEAN Port Cities Cooperation Network, Vietnam’s Hai Phong has deep-water ports capable of receiving ships up to 200,000 deadweight tons (dwt), which can connect Kunming-Lao Cai-Hanoi and Nanning-Lang Son-Hanoi routes. Besides, Guangxi has established cooperation partnership with Vietnam’s Quang Ninh, Hai Phong and Lang Son, so the both sides can deepen cooperation to jointly build the Southern Transport Corridor,”he said.

On May 24, 2018, the 10thPan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Forum & the 2ndChina-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor Development Forum was held in Nanning,Guangxi. The forum released a report for a new model of improving China-ASEAN land and maritime development.At the forum, the sponsors presented plaques to six new members of China-ASEAN Port Cities Cooperation Network,whose members thus increased to 31. These efforts will help make new ground in opening the Southern Transport Corridor further through links running eastward and westward, across land and over sea, and speed up its construction.