Supported by the express rail service, the Sichuan Free Trade Zone can strengthen cooperation with China's coastal ports, establish more duty-free shops to boost cross-border e-commerce businesses and also better facilitate construction of bonded logistics centers, Dai said.

Over the past four years, many companies have benefited from the express rail service, including DHL Express, Lenovo, TCL and Dell.

The Chinese consumer electronics company TCL, for example, has used the service to transport 99 percent of the color television components produced at its factories in Chengdu and Huizhou, Guangdong province, since January 2016. The components are taken to the factory in Poland, which is the company's largest such facility in Europe, with an annual production capacity of 2.2 million color TV sets.

This year, the company is scheduled to increase its production capacity by an additional 800,000 TV sets at its factory in Chengdu. Components for these TVs will be transported to and assembled in Poland, and the finished sets will be sold throughout Europe.

Liang Tiemin, vice-president of TCL Multimedia, said since Chengdu is the starting point of the express rail service, the company plans to make the city its major manufacturing base for TVs to be sold in Europe.

Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of the Chinese household appliance manufacturer Gree, is also very optimistic about Chengdu's strategic position and its market potential, saying her company would locate more projects in the city in future.

In 2016, 460 journeys were completed via the express rail service, delivering 73,000 metric tons of goods worth more than $1.3 billion. It is expected to run 1,000 cargo trains to Europe this year.

(China Daily 03/09/2017 page18)