Page 06 of People's Daily Overseas Edition Dated April 19, 2022

Economic activities call for the efficient combination and connection of various factors in production, distribution, circulation and consumption, which constitutes a circulation. In the first quarter of this year, China's foreign trade started smoothly, laying a good foundation for achieving the annual goals. Cross-border logistics, therefore, plays a very important role.

At the trade level, cross-border logistics is an important condition and essential part for smooth international trade. Any trade activity of any tangible product has to be realized through cross-border delivery. At the investment level, cross-border logistics is the premise for the development and sustainable operation of international two-way investment and related production processes, and the cross-border configuration of production factors such as equipment, raw materials and parts cannot do without the support of cross-border logistics. Since 2020, the great impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy has primarily occurred in the cross-border flow of commodities and factors. If cross-border logistics shrinks significantly or is even interrupted, it will lead to disconnection in the operation of the industrial chain and supply chain, which will not only hinder the domestic circulation, but also disable the dual circulation on both domestic and international levels.

In the face of the changes in the past century and the devastating pandemic unseen over the century, China has coped with the situation cool-headedly, made scientific decisions and effective deployment, coordinated the epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and actively adopted digital technology to ensure the safe and orderly operation of the cross-border logistics system. Commodities are shipped and delivered on time through cross-border logistics, from the ports and terminals, via China Railway Express, and then to the airport warehouse. On the one hand, it ensures the timely and accurate seamless connection of subsequent production processes, and the smooth production and delivery of end products; and on the other hand, the adequate and effective supply of all kinds of commodities has stabilized the market, price, expectation, and even the close cooperation between the upstream and downstream enterprises across the industrial chain.

To build a new development pattern and implement a high-level opening-up, we must have a robust domestic economic circulation system and keep the fundamentals of the economy stable, so as to greatly attract global factor resources, develop a strong competitiveness in the fierce international competition, and win a strong driving force in global resource allocation. Among them, it is crucial to build a safe, efficient and orderly cross-border logistics system.

Externally, we should pay attention to preventing the COVID-19 pandemic and the risk of backlash against globalization. At present, the pandemic prevention and control situations at home and abroad are complex, arduous and repetitive, strategies and methods adopted by different economies are further differentiated, and the tensions continue in foreign regional security situations. All these reasons have resulted in the increase in cross-border logistics costs and delivery risks, which are worth close attention of relevant market entities. Relevant departments and enterprises shall work out contingency plans, make good preparations and tackle them in a timely manner, and avoid the consequences that raw materials cannot enter, overseas personnel cannot come to visit, or goods cannot go out.

Internally, we should concentrate on our own development in a down-to-earth manner. To accelerate the construction of a new development pattern in which domestic and foreign markets boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, the key is to keep economic circulation unobstructed. Since the founding of new China, generation after generation of the Chinese people have worked in the spirit of opening roads through mountains and putting bridges over rivers, built a strong logistics infrastructure and logistics system, and opened China Railway Express and ocean-going cargo vessels have been running day and night to keep global industrial and supply chains stable. In the future, while consolidating the hardware advantages of logistics, we should further cultivate the software advantages, strive to build a cross-border logistics management system with clear responsibilities, strict law enforcement, smooth information and efficient operation, and keep the arteries of economic circulation unblocked.

The door of China will open still wider to the world. It is believed that with the increasingly strong cross-border logistics system, China's open economic development will continue to improve and give more impetus to the world economic recovery.