Testing, film sealing, packing... In the production workshop of TCL Optoelectronics Technology (Chengdu) Co., Ltd., located near the Chengdu International Railway Port, televisions are about to be shipped to Lodz, Poland.

"We chose Chengdu because of its corridor advantages." A batch of orders had just been shipped, and company general manager Chen Hezhi was already busy arranging the next production plan. "The China-Europe Railway Express operating company provides door-to-door service, and it is expected to arrive in Poland in 12 days," Chen Hezhi said. Chengdu's convenient cross-border transport conditions prompted the company to shift 80% of its European orders to Chengdu for production.

In September 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in a congratulatory letter to the 17th Western China International Fair that "the western region of China's active participation in jointly building the Belt and Road will further unleash tremendous vitality and vigor." In July 2023, during an inspection tour in Sichuan, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed, "Build a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition, and quickly become an important growth pole and new driving force for leading high-quality development in the west."

Visiting enterprises, exploring ports, and entering stations, many people share the same feeling as Chen Hezhi: Sichuan, located in the hinterland of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the west and actively participating in jointly building the Belt and Road, has obtained a "golden key" to building an open highland.

　　Holding the "golden key," Sichuan pays even more attention to corridor construction.

At the beginning of this year, sodium sulfate made in Leshan that arrived via the Yangtze River waterway, glass fiber made in Neijiang transported by rail, and local chemical products from Luzhou were combined into 25 groups of containers and dispatched from Luzhou. These goods traveled by block train through Guiyang, Guizhou, to Qinzhou, Guangxi, and then were exported by sea to Southeast Asia and other places.

"The inaugural Jiangtiehai (river-rail-sea) intermodal block train of the Sichuan New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has expanded new space for Sichuan and even the western region to accelerate integration into the global economy," said Zhang Yan, deputy director of the Port and Logistics Office of the Sichuan Provincial Government.

Not only river-rail-sea intermodal transport. Today, Chengdu has become a city with dual international airports, with 72 scheduled direct passenger and cargo routes to international (regional) destinations; Chengdu's international block trains connect 112 overseas cities, and the China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) has operated more than 30,000 trains in total... New corridors are helping Sichuan achieve high-level opening up.

　　Leveraging the new corridors, good domestic products go global, and good foreign products come in.

On Apron No. 5 of Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, cargo aircraft line up waiting. "There are five international cargo flights tonight, all operated by full-cargo aircraft," said Xu Chi, deputy manager of the Cargo Services Department of Sichuan Airport Group Aviation Ground Services Co., Ltd., who was processing procedures.

In the cargo station just a wall away, products such as home appliances and laptops are piled up fully. At the exit of the cargo station stands a pole equipped with cameras. "Testing was completed a while ago; through radio frequency identification technology, information on air transit cargo can be sent to customs in advance," Xu Chi said. With the new technology, transit time can be further reduced by five to six hours.

In the first seven months of this year, Sichuan's total goods trade imports and exports reached 582.52 billion yuan, a record high for the same period in history, up 12.1% year on year. Among this, imports and exports with Belt and Road partner countries totaled 258.43 billion yuan, up 18.3% year on year.

　　With the help of the new corridors, domestic enterprises can go abroad, and foreign enterprises are willing to come.

"We hope to serve as a bridge connecting Chengdu with the world," said Brian Agnew, general manager of Airbus (Chengdu) Aircraft Lifecycle Services Co., Ltd., speaking about Airbus's aircraft full-lifecycle service project deployed outside Europe. In January this year, the project was officially put into operation, and a month later the first aircraft entered the facility for maintenance.

At present, more than 16,000 foreign enterprises have chosen Sichuan, including 285 Fortune Global 500 companies.

　　Corridors are the foundation, mechanisms are the key, and a sound business environment supports high-level opening up.

From submitting materials to completing a series of procedures such as business license, tax registration, and bank account opening, in the South Sichuan Port Area of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, it takes only six hours for an enterprise to complete establishment procedures. In the past, enterprises had to visit more than 10 departments and needed at least five days.

The change stems from the "hour-based checklist for enterprise establishment." "License information such as enterprise setup, seal engraving, bank account opening, tax handling, and social insurance registration for newly established enterprises is consolidated by category and level into three checklists of 1 hour, 3 hours, and 6 hours, enabling the entire enterprise establishment process to take no more than 18 hours, and for enterprises not subject to pre-approval, establishment can be completed in as fast as 1 hour," introduced a relevant person in charge of the Administrative Approval Bureau of the South Sichuan Port Area.

Promoting reform through opening up, institutional opening up is steadily expanding. Since the establishment of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, it has gathered one quarter of the province's foreign-funded enterprises and contributed one tenth of the province's total import and export value. By the end of 2023, it had explored and formed more than 800 institutional innovation achievements.

Today, Sichuan's international sister cities and friendly cooperative relations have increased to 475 pairs, and 23 foreign countries have been approved to establish consular institutions in Chengdu. In the first half of this year, foreign nationals entered and exited through Chengdu's air ports more than 458,000 times, an increase of 572% over the same period last year. Traveling, investing, and doing business in Sichuan have become the choice of more and more international friends.

The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed accelerating the formation of a comprehensive opening pattern featuring land-sea linkage at home and abroad and mutual reinforcement between east and west. Sichuan, which is accelerating the building of a strategic highland for opening up to the west and a new base for participating in international competition, is striving to write a new chapter of Chinese modernization in Sichuan.