From October 17 to 18, the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (hereinafter referred to as the BRI). In the past decade, China Post has given full play to its role as the “national team” of the postal industry, made great contributions to the high-quality development of the Belt and Road cooperation, and borne fruitful results.

Over the decade, China Post has deeply integrated itself into the industrial system of international logistics.

Continuously strengthening cooperation with countries involved in the BRI and cooperation in the field of postal and express services in the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) region, it has increased channels to facilitate the express and logistics businesses in China to go global and promoted the extension of global industrial chains and the connection of supply chains. Based on the strengthened construction of six key air ports in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Nanjing and Hong Kong, China Post has built an aviation network connecting the Belt and Road countries and regions. It has invested in building new sites for the offices of exchange in Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi’an, Shenyang and Yiwu, and added to them mail processing capacity for railway transportation, therefore effectively supporting the opening of new China-Europe Railway Express mail routes starting from these cities. China Post has launched 13 China-Europe Railway Express mail routes, through which it had transported altogether 2,159 containers (weighing 14,085.2 tonnes in total) of outbound international mail as of August 2023. China Post’s international parcel and international small packet services can now reach all Belt and Road countries and regions, its international ePacket can reach 33 and its international EMS 82 such countries and regions. Since the implementation of the Belt and Road strategy, China Post has dispatched a total of 1.75 billion mail items to the Belt and Road countries and regions, generating total revenue of 49.46 billion yuan (about 6.78 billion US dollars), and driving an expected trade volume of over 165 billion yuan (about 22.63 billion US dollars).

China Post has also built 15 overseas warehouses with a total area of 60,000 square meters in 12 countries and regions in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and 7 domestic transit warehouses, providing overseas warehousing and distribution service for 3,500 Chinese enterprises.

Over the decade, China Post has continuously increased its investment of financial service resources.

Focusing on major projects in key areas, the Postal Savings Bank of China kept increasing financial investment to provide funds for enterprises and infrastructure projects in railways, highways and ports in border and coastal provinces. As of the end of September 2023, it had raised more than 100 billion yuan for BRI projects. Since 2014, China Post Insurance has provided insurance service for the employees of the International Mail Processing Center at Chongqing Railway Port, with a net amount at risk of nearly 10 billion yuan (about 1.37 billion US dollars).

Over the decade, China Post has comprehensively deepened cooperation and exchanges with Posts in Belt and Road countries and regions.

Interconnected with countries and regions around the world, China Post continuously promoted international cooperation and people-to-people exchanges with the Belt and Road countries and regions. It secured mutually beneficial cooperation with Kyrgyz Post in eight areas under the framework of the BRI, including mail delivery, finance and joint training programs. It cooperated with Iran Post in postal infrastructure construction, cross-border logistics, cross-border e-commerce platforms and others. It set up a joint working group with Belpost under the framework of the BRI cooperation, and jointly pushed forward the transport of mail by China-Europe freight trains. So far, China Post has signed bilateral agreements with postal operators in 36 Belt and Road countries and regions.

In the future, China Post will continue to focus on deepening international exchanges and cooperation, optimizing the quality of mail delivery service, improving the quality and efficiency of financial service, and promoting the development of cross-border trade, and make contributions to the Belt and Road cooperation.