Cross-border logistics infrastructure construction and its challenges in the context of “One Belt, One Road”

With the explosive growth of China’s cross-border e-commerce, its huge potential has become an important growth point for my country’s foreign trade. The proposal of the “One Belt, One Road” strategy has brought major benefits to cross-border e-commerce. However, cross-border logistics has also emerged as a bottleneck restricting the development of the entire industry.

Infrastructure construction and opening up international corridors

The “Belt and Road” initiative emphasizes international interconnection, among which infrastructure interconnection is particularly important. For node countries participating in the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, the need to improve infrastructure has become increasingly prominent, covering highways, railways, seaports, public facilities, environmental protection and other fields. Among them, the further opening up of international major channels will promote the connection of infrastructure and form a three-dimensional international logistics infrastructure system with ports and air ports as the center and railways, highways and waterways as the network. Strengthening the connectivity of infrastructure has created new opportunities for the development of cross-border logistics. For example, the current sea transportation time from Shanghai to Hamburg is 30 days. After the opening of the China-Europe special train, the transportation time is shortened to about 15 days, while the freight remains at about 10,000 yuan. This phenomenon shows that the rapid transportation capability of cross-border logistics cannot be ignored without increasing costs.

The complexity of cross-border logistics development

However, in the construction process of the “Belt and Road”, a large number of countries and fields are involved, and their economic development levels, cultures and social systems vary significantly, making the long-term implementation of this strategy complex. Achieving infrastructure interconnection is undoubtedly fundamental, but infrastructure construction alone cannot support the long-term development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The key to the success of cross-border logistics lies in whether its information integration and service capabilities can match the connectivity and speed of the infrastructure, and whether it can transform from traditional logistics to modern logistics. In addition, cross-border logistics’ ability to grasp market opportunities and sensitivity to potential markets will also affect its development results.

In short, although the “Belt and Road Initiative” has brought good opportunities for the development of cross-border logistics, it also faces many challenges such as the mismatch between infrastructure connectivity and the actual development of the industry, which will require the joint efforts of all parties. , to ensure the smooth advancement of cross-border logistics.