China’s westernmost border port goes 24/7 to boost Central Asia trade
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
The Irkeshtam port in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region launched a trial of 24-hour freight clearance operations on Sunday, making it the second land port in the region and the first in southern Xinjiang to adopt such a system. This move is aimed at enhancing trade logistics between China and Central Asia, according to the local immigration inspection station.
As China’s westernmost land port, Irkeshtam serves as a critical gateway to Kyrgyzstan and a hub for Central and West Asia, with rising cross-border activity and robust transport demand.
To support the round-the-clock operations, the Irkeshtam immigration inspection station optimized staffing through shift rotations and implemented “on-arrival inspection” for freight vehicles, which strikes a balance between security and efficiency.
Jiang Zhidong, chairman of the Kashgar-based Xinjiang Jiujiuxi International Trade Co., Ltd., said that the system will significantly boost cargo efficiency, cut logistics costs, further energize port operations and unleash foreign trade potential.
Statistics show that port traffic has surged this year at Irkeshtam, with the station handling over 105,800 trips and 98,500 vehicles by Sunday, up 80 percent and 79 percent year on year, respectively.
Reference Link:- https://english.news.cn/20250602/0e34137864654d709035aceade570cbc/c.html
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
