in
recent years, ningxia has seized the significant opportunities created by the
belt and road initiative. it has continuously built platforms for international
cooperation, optimized the open environment, and made progress in developing an
open economy.
the scale of foreign trade and investment has steadily expanded. the economic and trade cooperation between ningxia hui autonomous region and countries and regions along the belt and road has been deepening. since 2013, ningxia has achieved a cumulative import and export volume of 75.6 billion yuan (about $10.4 billion) with countries and regions along the belt and road. in the first half of this year, the import and export volume increased by 26% year-on-year.
the role of the china-arab states expo is becoming increasingly prominent. in the five previous china-arab states expos, a total of 112 countries and regions, 24 chinese and foreign leaders, 318 chinese and foreign ministerial-level guests, and over 6,000 domestic and foreign companies participated in the event. a total of 1,213 cooperation projects were signed.
the construction of open channels is accelerating. yinchuan hedong international airport now has more than 80 cities connected and over 100 air routes. the resumption of international flights such as yinchuan-hong kong and yinchuan-dubai are being promoted. furthermore, the stable operation of the china-europe, the china-asia freight trains and the ningxia international freight train on the new international land-sea trade corridor are ensured. freight trains such as huinong- ho chi minh, vietnam and yinchuan-vientiane, laos have been launched.
the open environment continues to be optimized. a number of large-scale open platforms, such as the ningxia inland opening-up pilot economic zone, ningxia national grape and wine industry open development comprehensive pilot zone, china (yinchuan) cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, and national-level economic development zones, are accelerating their construction.