HEALTH SILK ROAD

China-Europe air bridge played an extensive role in the early response to the raging coronavirus outbreak, while rail freight transport later helped to compensate for the standstill in global air transport, and secured a steady supply of medical equipment to Europe.

The logistics behind delivering such large shipments relied on the existing air transport lines with China within Alibaba's electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hub at the Liege airport in Belgium, which soon became a key logistics hub in the fight against the epidemic in Europe, taking donations of medical supplies to countries including France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.

"The Alibaba Foundation and the Jack Ma Foundation were able to activate this logistics network quickly and efficiently at the beginning of the crisis to deliver urgently-needed donations of PPE (personal protective equipment)," said Michel Kempeneers, chief operating officer of Overseas Export-Investment at Wallonia Export-Investment Agency, adding it was a determining factor in World Health Organization's choice to place Liege on the map of the world's emergency relief hubs.

In a similar way, Alibaba's eWTP global hubs have played a significant role in distributing urgently-needed medical supplies across the world, and will continue their efforts in assisting economic recovery in the coming days, the company announced.

"As countries gradually emerge from the crisis, our eWTP hubs will pivot towards supporting global trade, with a focus on using technology to assist SMEs (small and mid-size enterprises), in order to assist with the economic recovery," said James Song, secretary general of the Globalization Office of Alibaba Group.

When air transport could no longer meet the demand of Europe for medical supplies, rail freight transport lines were expanded to ensure continuity in shipments.

In mid-April, a new China-Europe rail freight transport connection was established in order to meet the rising demand for international parcel delivery amid the COVID-19 pandemic, connecting China and Lithuania.

The first train of the new service with much-needed medical supplies arrived from China's Southwest Chongqing municipality on April 12 in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and 42 containers of parcels were distributed to many European countries.

Lithuanian Minister of Transport and Communications Jaroslav Narkevic said at the time that the country engages in closer cooperation with China during the difficult pandemic period, and the new railway connection "will bring new impetus for further strengthening of a versatile partnership of Lithuania and China."

Since the new line was launched, it has brought thousands of tons of medical equipment, as well as consumer goods to most European countries, helping the fight against the pandemic and promoting multilateral trade exchange and cooperation between regions of southern China and countries and regions along the route.

Michael Schumann, board chairman of Germany's Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade, told Xinhua in a written interview that the freight train connections "created and improved by the BRI have played a positive role in securing certain supplies at the start of the corona pandemic."

"The supply of important protective devices and medical equipment from China reached many European countries quickly and easily that way," he said, noting that the BRI can make an important contribution to developing alternative transport routes in the future, which is key to preventing a transport standstill.

During a welcome ceremony of the train from Wuhan in German city of Duisburg, State Transport Minister Hendrik Wuest said the supplies transported from China by rail, especially medical ones, are of great significance for the steady restoration of normalcy, as people in Germany are also suffering from COVID-19.

Moreover, for Erich Staake, chief executive officer of German logistics company Duisburger Hafen AG, the China-Europe freight train has also helped further promote cooperation in the logistics and the economic development of both sides.

Now, during the upcoming post-pandemic era, China's Health Silk Road not only continues to play a key role in helping Europe combat the coronavirus outbreak, its improved transport and logistics capacities have also promised more rapid development of both sides, so as to facilitate global economic recovery.