Chinese cities' RCEP trade push expected to sustain momentum

China's inland cities will increase their use of the country's railroad links to seaports in order to boost exports to other signatory economies of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which will help sustain the country's foreign trade growth this year, said government officials and market observers.

In recent years, inland provinces such as Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Hubei have been exploring various options to improve their exports and make them more sustainable. Cities in such provinces have been keen to establish transportation linkages to the ports in Shanghai and coastal provinces. They have relied on existing railroad networks to transship their products to other RCEP markets.

Inland cities, including Nanchang in Jiangxi province and Guiyang in Guizhou province, have operated a number of freight train services to export goods to countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and the Republic of Korea in recent months. Their railway containers are reloaded at ports like Wenzhou in Zhejiang province and Qinzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region for the ocean voyage.