The line manager has assured councillor Gastón that Zaragoza is “an important business growth centre.”
The so-called Silk Train, linking the Chinese city of Yiwu with Madrid along its extensive commercial merchandise route, will stop in the Aragonese capital within a year. This was assured by Alex Zhang, the president of the Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment Corporation, which is the manager of the line, after meeting with councillor Marta Gastón in the Chinese city this morning. Gastón travelled to the Zhejiang region to strengthen commercial ties with it, as it is of fundamental interest for Aragon to be one of the stops for this train. After the appointment, Zhang gave an assurance that Zaragoza is “an important business growth centre”, with first level logistics and distribution platforms, a connection with the ports of Barcelona and Valencia and an airport at kilometre zero. Zhang assured that “between 6 months and a year, if everything goes well, and we are working hard on it, the goal is to have a stop in Zaragoza.” The Chinese official considered that cargo could be secured for the return journey from the Zaragoza Logistics Platform (Plaza) to China, boosting the exchanges in a win-win situation.
After the announcement, the Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment was satisfied “that the strategic conditions and logistics development of Aragon were well understood by the administrative, political and business managers of this part of world trade development.” Both from the industrial and commercial point of view, Yiwu is responsible for a good part of the world exchange of goods. The so-called Silk Train, since 2014, has been one of the factors making the region even more dynamic, and reaches Madrid (via Irún). On its arrival at the only stop it currently has in Spain, there can be a total of 42 containers in its 750m length, with a frequency of 2 trips per week.
At the moment, it crosses 8 countries in its journey of more than 13,000km – China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France and Spain – in addition to other branches it opens to Great Britain and Iran. These are the destination of both the goods departing from Yiwu and those that would eventually leave the Aragonese capital. The journey is longer than the Trans-Siberian and Orient Express put together, with the Silk Train journey lasting 18 days.
In addition, the final destination in Yiwu (starting from Spain) is of great interest for Aragonese companies, Gastón reminded the council; given that the city houses the largest Chinese distribution centre in the world, a market from which goods are exported multisectorially to 216 countries around the world and is located next to the largest traffic port on the planet, that of Ningbo (China).
Those responsible for the line accompanied the official Aragonese delegation on a tour of the railway terminal and the merchandise loading and unloading area, together with other managers from the local Foreign Office and the Yiwu International Land Port Group Co. before visiting the Yiwu Timex Industrial facilities.
Subsequently, the councillor continued with her busy schedule on the trip, with a visit to the town of Yiting, which has initiated various urban, infrastructure and new service development projects under the national development plan for the country. Gastón met with the political leaders in the area, and members of the Exchange Foundation Board between Yiwu and Spain, with the intention of finding out about possibilities these projects may offer for Aragonese companies.
