The Bedel checkpoint will be opened in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region / Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China/ this year, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR, Northwest China) Government Chairman Erkin Tuniyaz said on Tuesday, delivering a working report at the ongoing 2nd session of the 14th XUAR People's Congress.

The Bedel checkpoint, located on China's border with Kyrgyzstan, is more than 70 kilometers from Wushi County of Aksu District in Xinjiang and about 80 kilometers from the city of Karakol in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul Province. In addition, this checkpoint is only 350 kilometers from the Kazakh city of Almaty.

According to the report, Xinjiang will also accelerate the promotion of year-round operation of the Hongerab checkpoint on the China-Pakistan border.

In 2024, Xinjiang will accelerate the construction of infrastructure at border crossings and the establishment of "smart checkpoints," continuously optimizing the customs clearance process and enhancing cargo clearance capabilities, the report said.

European and international financial institutions will allocate €10 billion for sustainable transport links between the EU and Central Asia. The investments will be used to develop the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor, so that cargo can pass through it within 15 days.

On the eve of his state visit to China (January 23-25), President Shavkat Mirziyoyev published author's articles on the prospects of Uzbek-Chinese relations in People's Daily.

"Uzbekistan is sincerely satisfied with China's successes," he said

"The first month of the new year is always about meeting with best friends, new hopes and endeavors. It is deeply symbolic that I will make my first visit to the Celestial Empire next year at the invitation of His Excellency Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China," the article said.

The development of transportation and logistics infrastructure for economic activities of the two countries under China's "One Less, One Road" initiative.

"Increasing multimodal multimodal routes between China and Central Asia to load cargo and passengers to the world market, new terminals, new high-tech production and facilities, and the creation of integrated roadside services. The digitalization of infrastructure and logistics will be an important contribution to the development of interregional ties along the historic Great Silk Road.

The closure of the Suez route has changed the fundamental outlook for container shipping in 2024, with a potential capacity crunch in Asia looming in the short term, according to the January report of the Baltic Exchange.

In the report, Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen wrote that up until mid-December 2023, the baseline outlook for 2024 was for a continued cyclical downturn likely with freight rates bottoming out in late 1Q or early 2Q 2024.

Jensen wrote, “After this, it was anticipated that carriers would begin to idle more capacity to stabilise and strengthen rates from what had already become loss-making levels. The de-facto closure of the Suez routing has changed this baseline outlook fundamentally.”

Threats of attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, the entry to the Suez, has made many operators detour vessels around the Cape of Good Hope.

Operating the Asia-Europe and part of the Asia-US East Coast network will absorb 5 to 6% of global capacity. This should be manageable given the amount of overcapacity that had accumulated in the market.

Jensen continued, “Clearly, supply chains would have longer transit times, with Asia-North Europe up by 7 to 8 days and Asia-Med up by 10 to 12 days at least. It will also lead to rates markedly higher than pre-crisis. This will cause carriers to become profitable again. But rates will peak in the next four weeks and then abate to this new level.”

The slow repositioning of empty containers, common during the Covid-19-fuelled pandemic, is likely to repeat itself.

In the period from January to November 2023, investment in fixed assets of China's transportation sector increased by 3.2 percent year-on-year to 3.6 trillion yuan /about $506.84 billion/, data from the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China showed. The data of the Ministry of Transportation of the People's Republic of China showed.

In particular, investments in fixed assets in road transport increased by 1.2 percent to 2.6 trillion yuan, in water transport - by 23.7 percent to 182.9 billion yuan, the ministry said.