COSCO SHIPPING and China Railway Signed an Agreement on Strategic

Capt. Xu Lirong, Chairman of the Board and Party Secretary of COSCO SHIPPING, and Mr. Lu Dongfu, President and Party Secretary of China Railway held talks in Beijing with a view to further deepening their strategic cooperation and promoting the development of international intermodal transport and rail-water intermodal transport.

The meeting was also attended by Mr. Ye Weilong, Executive Vice President of COSCO SHIPPING, Mr. Li Wenxin, Vice President of China Railway, and heads of the relevant divisions from both sides. The two sides reached and signed an agreement on strategic cooperation through friendly consultations.

Both COSCO SHIPPING and China Railway shoulder an important mission in serving China’s national economic development and policy of opening up to the outside world. By enhancing their cooperation, the two sides can help promote the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, realize the seamless connection of the sea and land routes, and contribute to the land-sea two-way opening up.

They can also pool the superior shipping and railway resources and exploit the advantages of their main business to enhance the synergy, while expanding the scale of rail-water intermodal transport and scope of business in order to promote common development and establish a new paradigm of cooperation between giant centrally administered SOEs.

Moreover, such cooperation may also be conducive to improving the logistics operational efficiency, lowering the social logistics cost, and creating a brand new total logistics ecosystem to raise the economic operation efficiency and business profitability.

According to the agreement, both sides would enhance, in the principle of “long-term perspective, market-orientation, strong cooperation and win-win results”, their cooperation on intermodal transport infrastructure construction, intermodal transport service development, operation of the China Railway Express and implementation of the “going global” strategy so as to promote the achievement of their strategic cooperation goals, to initiate a new prospect for rail-water intermodal transport, and to boost the development of the Maritime Silk Road.

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