What they say

Connected by high-speed railways and international airlines to the rest of the world, Guiyang enjoys apparent geographical advantages. As science and technology develop at a fast pace, land transportation, especially high-speed rail, has become faster, safer and more reliable. The sea-land multimodal transport has facilitated the development of land port-based industries and logistics parks in Guiyang. The city has become an important part of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge through the China-Europe Railway Express service that connects 62 Chinese cities with 51 cities across 15 European countries.

Sun Shuzhong, former Chinese ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco and former Chinese ambassador to Rwanda

In the past few years, we have successfully connected the Southwest China region and Southeast Asia under the Belt and Road Initiative, which is an all-round network featuring a new land-sea corridor. As Guiyang is a key hub in the network of the corridor, the Guiyang city government has rolled out a strategic plan with the aim of combining trade and industrial development to build Guiyang into an international city of trade and manufacturing. How to give full play to the new land-sea corridor and make full use of its regional and geographical advantages will be important tasks (for Guiyang) in the future.

Gao Jian, secretary-general of the Shanghai Academy of Global Governance and Area Studies

An inland transportation hub area represents the new trend of economic growth both at home and abroad. By actively constructing external channels and supporting infrastructure, an inland city can become a hub port for international trade, like in the coastal areas. We believe Guiyang will meet a similar opportunity by developing inland ports to expand the western region to an export-oriented economy. With a new multimodal transport channel that links ASEAN members to the south and Europe to the west, Guiyang can find a way to achieve comprehensive development with local characteristics.

Gao Junjie, partner in innovative services at PricewaterhouseCoopers China

The cooperation between China and Thailand in tourism, agricultural products, minerals and handicrafts has become an anchor for the close relationship between the two countries. The rapid development of Guiyang in the past several years has brought great attention to Thailand. The new land-sea corridor also gives Guiyang an important role in connecting western China's resources and products, manufacturing and trade to the world market, and gives it great power to influence Thailand and even ASEAN. We look forward to this energetic and dynamic economic accelerator to inject new vitality into Thailand-China economy and trade cooperation.

Phaichit Viboontanasarn, vice-president and secretary-general of the Thai Chamber of Commerce in China

China is the largest partner for Brazil. And as I said, we have a very important relationship with China. It's a long-term relationship. And the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Brazil has a very important role in this relationship, since the chamber aims to provide solutions for the Chinese that would like to invest in Brazil, and the Brazilians that would like to invest China. The chamber is now advising many Brazilian companies to export to or invest in China, which has opened markets for Brazilian startups, mainly in financial tech and health tech. I believe the Chinese side can also use our chamber as a platform, to know more about the Brazilian market and the Brazilian players, and to help you make strategic partnerships with Brazilian companies. We have a large market in Brazil, and we have 200 million people, so there are a lot of opportunities in Brazil for Chinese.

Daniel Manucci, president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Brazil

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China and Poland have established extensive cooperation in economy and trade. The new land-sea corridor is to promote trade between the two countries. We are confident that agricultural products from the vast plain in Poland and those from mountains in Guizhou are complementary (in each other's market).

Andrzej Juchniewiez, chief representative of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency in China