新加坡联合早报：“渝新欧”是重庆求解地理困局的破题之作

□ 文/本刊记者 李静

新加坡联合早报：“渝新欧”是重庆求解地理困局的破题之作

□ 文/本刊记者 李静

吴晗均

新加坡《联合早报》记者

在打造内陆开放高地等国家战略支撑下，重庆对外经济发展迅速。拥有‘两带一路’战略节点、增长快速的对外经济，重庆已成为中国内陆开放窗口。

新加坡《联合早报》记者吴晗均表示，重庆提出打造对外开放高地是一个及时的概念，作为一个内陆城市，重庆与沿海其他城市相比欠缺与外部世界直接沟通的渠道，接触有限，“两带一路”的战略正是解决了沟通的这个问题。

重庆“两带一路”战略节点中的“一带”是指长江经济带，把中国东、中、西部串在一起，是国家区域发展战略的重要一环。另一“带”是指丝绸之路经济带。以重庆为起点的渝新欧国际铁路联运大通道直达德国杜伊斯堡，是丝绸之路的重要载体，承担向西开放作用。“一路”则是21世纪海上丝绸之路。

“在打造内陆开放高地等国家战略支撑下，重庆对外经济发展迅速。拥有‘两带一路’战略节点、增长快速的对外经济，重庆已成为中国内陆开放窗口。”在重庆工作的经验让吴晗均对这座城市有了更深的理解。如今的重庆正在积极发展电子产业，而渝新欧铁路已成为重庆市全球笔记本电脑基地产品、机电产品、汽车配件快速运往欧洲新的战略通道。重庆将因此成为中国对欧洲开放的桥头堡。而这条铁路，正是重庆求解地理困局的破题之作。

作为一个深处内陆2000多公里的城市，重庆一直受制于崇山峻岭阻隔，对外开放步伐大受影响。重庆的货物要出口到国外，不得不经历“南辕北辙”的痛苦：从重庆出发，沿着西北方向直线距离不过1万公里就是欧洲。但按照向东出海惯例，重庆货物只能东运上海，装船后再南下穿越马六甲海峡，而后转向西北前往欧洲，“‘渝新欧’巧妙而富有创意地解决了这些难题。而中国政府提出的‘丝绸之路经济带’也给了重庆更大的发展平台，将重庆与西北部的城市连接了起来。”吴晗均告诉记者。

“渝新欧”铁路开启了第三条欧亚大陆桥。它以重庆为中心，构建起辐射中国南方及东南亚的大物流圈，欧亚大陆南部没有横向连接铁路的状况成为历史。这个新的欧亚大陆桥，将有效破解内陆地区发展外贸，特别是加工贸易的物流瓶颈问题，打破中国对外贸易“一江春水向东流”的传统格局。

“作为一家境外媒体，我们更加关注的是这样的战略发展将给中国的未来带来怎样的影响和作用，我们报道重庆，报道‘渝新欧’，希望让世界知道这样一个平台在中国未来发展中所扮演的角色，同时让新加坡的企业了解重庆的发展，把握机会开展两地合作。”吴晗均也表示，此前新加坡是以电子产业为主，因人力成本过高，开始转型发展现代服务业，同时由东向西发展，新加坡每五年都会经历一个新的经济转型时期，也是深受外资青睐的国家之一，与现在的重庆颇为相似，在吸引外资方面，政策的优惠和政府资金支持是必不可少的。

Wu Hanjun, a journalist from Singaporean Lianhe Zaobao said that the notion of building Chongqing into a highland of opening-up is timely. As an inland city, comparing with other coastal cities in China, Chongqing lacks a direct communicative channel with the outside world; the strategy of two Economic Belts and the New Silk Road, however, solves the communication problem.

One of the “two Economic Belts”refers to Yangtze River Economic Belt, which links China’s east, central, and west part together and as an important part of national regional development strategy. Another “Economic Belt”means the Silk Road Economic Belt. Starting from Chongqing and ending in Duisburg, Germany, the International Joint Railway Transportation Channel of Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe is a major carrier of New Silk Road Economic Belt and assumes the role of opening up to the west. “The New Silk Road” refers to the 21st century Maritime Silk Road.

“Supported by the policy of building an inland highland of opening-up and other national strategies, Chongqing’s foreign economy develops rapidly. With the strategy of two Economic Belts and the New Silk Road and a rapid growth foreign economy, Chongqing has become an inland window of opening-up in China.” Wu Hanjun, who used to work in Chongqing, has a deeper understanding of this city. Now, Chongqing is actively developing electronic industry and “Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe” Railway has become a new strategic channel for Chongqing to quickly ship its laptops, mechanical and electrical products and auto parts to Europe. Chongqing will therefore become a bridgehead to open up to Europe. And this railway is just the breakthrough to break the geographic dilemma of Chongqing.

As a hinterland city which is more than 2000 kilometers far way from coastline, Chongqing suffers from obstructs brought by the high mountains and lofty hills all the time and the opening up progress is greatly blocked. Cargo from Chongqing to abroad has to travel a very long shipping distance: straight-line distance from Chongqing to Europe in the northwest direction is no more than 10,000 kilometers, but according to the practice of “entering sea eastward”, Chongqing’s cargo is transported to Shanghai first and then heads down south to Strait of Malacca after shipment and finally heads to Europe along the northwest direction.“Now ‘Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe’Railway solves these problems smartly and creatively. ‘The New Silk Road’proposed by the Chinese government gives a greater development platform to Chongqing as well as connects Chongqing with other northwest cities in China.” Wu Hanjun said.

“Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe”Railway opens a third Eurasia land bridge, which centers on Chongqing and builds a big logistics circle radiating to southern China and Southeast Asia. The situation without cross-link railway in southern part of Eurasia has become history. This new Eurasia land bridge will effectively solve the logistic bottleneck problem of developing foreign trade especially processing trade in hinterland area and will break the traditional pattern of China’s foreign trade all going east.

“As a foreign press, we are more concerned that what impacts this strategic development will have on China’s future. The reason why we report Chongqing and “Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe” Railway is that we hope to inform the world the role of this platform in China’s future development and meanwhile inform enterprises from Singapore of Chongqing’s development and seize the opportunity to cooperate with each other.” Wu Hanjun also said that Singapore used to focus on electronic industry. Due to high human costs, Singapore now starts to develop modern service industry and at the same time starts to develop from east to west. Every five years, Singapore will experience a new economic transformation period. Similar to Chongqing, Singapore, as one of the countries which is favored by foreign capital, has preferential policies and government funds to attract foreign capital.

Singaporean Lianhe Zaobao:“Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe” Railway breaks the geographic dilemma of Chongqing

□ by reporter Li Jing