This week a Ministerial visit is taking place to China involving Luxembourg's Minister of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, Francois Bausch, and the Secretary of State for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, Camille Gira, who are in both Beijing and Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan Province.
Thursday @ Zhengzhou: Logistics at Zhengzhou airport
On Thursday, Minister Bausch and Secretary of State Gira went to the view expansion project at Zhengzhou airport, i.e. the freight railway station and the new passenger terminal.
The Luxembourg Chronicle talked with Minister Bausch who confirmed that the proposed new Zhengzhou - Bettembourg rail link regarding which an MoU was signed yesterday, will initially primarily bring electronics and other consumer goods from China to Europe, with goods travelling the other direction later. The time for such a journey is approximately 2 weeks; when compared to a duration of 5 weeks by ship and the cost of air freight, this multimodal rail connection appears to be a very positive and economic step, at least for certain cargoes. Minister Bausch confirmed that the railway guage is the same in China as it is in Europe, so there will be no changes required to tgracks or rolling stock.
Henan Province is located in east-central China and has a population of over 100 million people with an area greater than 167,000 km2. Zhengzhou is a city of over 8 million inhabitants and the capital of Henan Province and was designated in March 2013 by the central government in Beijing as the first experimental economic zone in terms of airport economy.
Earlier in the day, Minister Bausch and Secretary of State Gira met with the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party of Henan Province, Guo Gengmao, who had been on an official visit to Luxembourg in June 2015 at the invitation of François Bausch. During his stay in the Grand Duchy, Guo Gengmao visited the multimodal platform in Bettembourg. This has turned out to be a very successful initiative, since it led to a study on a rail link for freight transfers between Zhengzhou and Bettembourg.
Today Guo Gengmao called the project "a significant meaning for both countries." François Bausch, meanwhile, said that "these new procedures related to the railway sector perfectly complement the success booked since 2014 in cooperation between Henan and Luxembourg in the field of aviation."
Photos by MDDI
