Spring tides surge through the mountain city, finance takes the lead in rowing. Not long ago, a meeting to accelerate the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Financial Service Center was held in Chongqing. At the meeting, 15 institutions signed agreements to settle in the Corridor Financial Service Center, and the “PBOC Western China Land-Sea Smart Financial Connectivity Platform” officially commenced construction.
This meeting sounded the rousing movement of finance empowering the high-quality development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
In recent years, in Chongqing’s trade exchanges with countries and regions co-building the “Belt and Road”, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has gradually become a vibrant international economic corridor, helping Chongqing and even the western region cross mountains and seas, connect with ASEAN, and integrate into the global market. The pace of enterprises “going global” has subsequently accelerated, and the demand for related financial services has become increasingly strong.
Based on its strategic positioning as a western financial center, Chongqing has deeply implemented the “Smart Finance, Benefit, Smooth” project, providing strong support for finance to empower the development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor through policy and institutional innovation. Directly facing enterprise needs, the Chongqing financial system, taking the “Smart Finance, Benefit, Smooth” project as the overall lever, has initially established a cross-domain collaborative financial support system for the Corridor covering financial regulation, financial institutions, and financial markets through innovative measures such as systematic institutional reform, building integrated hubs, and constructing a radiating system, injecting strong financial momentum into the development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
Dare to be First: Systematically Promote the Reform of Corridor Financial Institutions
In traditional international trade, ocean bills of lading possess both the function of title documents and financial attributes, and can be used for mortgage financing. However, land transport documents such as railway waybills are only transport vouchers, leading to a long-standing dilemma for land trade enterprises of “having documents but difficulty in financing”. This has become a major bottleneck restricting the development of land trade and the logistics of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
How to solve the problem? As an important departure point for China-Europe Railway Express trains and the logistics operation organization center for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, Chongqing dared to be the first and took the lead in exploring a way to break the deadlock.
In December 2017, Chongqing issued a policy supporting banks to use multimodal transport bills of lading and railway transport documents as valid documents for international settlement and trade financing. Based on this, the Chongqing Branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China issued the world’s first railway bill of lading international letter of credit, pioneering the exploration of land trade financing rules.
In 2019, Chongqing launched the “single document system” pilot for sea-rail intermodal transport, and the relevant case was selected as a national best practice for pilot free trade zones.
In 2022, China launched the pilot for railway transport document financial services, and Chongqing became one of the first batch of pilot regions.
A series of pioneering trials ultimately elevated “Chongqing Practice” into international common rules.
In 2019, based on Chongqing’s practice, the Ministry of Commerce proposed to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) to formulate international rules. In December 2025, the 80th session of the UN General Assembly reviewed and adopted the “United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents”, providing for the first time an international legal basis for the negotiability of global railway waybills.
In recent years, Chongqing has coordinated the promotion of corridor financial institutional innovation and iteratively upgraded the financial system of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. The above case is just one example.
Taking characteristic financial policy innovation as an example, in recent years, relying on open platforms such as the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity and the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone, Chongqing has been at the forefront of the country in policy implementation and innovative application in the financial field, forming a special institutional guarantee for financial services supporting the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
For instance, Chongqing was approved to take the lead in launching the pilot for facilitation of trade foreign exchange receipts and payments in the central and western regions; it was approved as the first pilot city for high-level opening-up of cross-border trade in the central and western regions, and the first “Qualified Domestic Limited Partner (QDLP) + Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (QFLP)” dual pilot city in the central and western regions; it implemented a series of characteristic opening-up policies such as the domestic and foreign currency integrated capital pool, and so on.
In terms of promoting macro-financial policy guidance, in November last year, the People’s Bank of China and seven other ministries and commissions issued the first national-level special financial policy document supporting the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor — the “Opinions on Financial Support for Accelerating the Construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor”.
The “Opinions” propose 21 key measures in areas such as improving the financial organization collaboration system, promoting institutional reform and innovation, improving the financial opening-up and cooperation system, and deepening cross-provincial and cross-border financial regulatory collaboration, strengthening the two core financial functions of financing and settlement, providing macro-institutional guarantees for financial support for the high-quality development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
Synergistic Linkage: Integratively Promote the Construction of Financial Hub Mechanisms
On April 15, 2026, the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee Financial Office led the convening of the 2026 Work Exchange Meeting of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Financial Services Consortium (hereinafter referred to as the Financial Consortium). Representatives from financial regulatory authorities and members of the Financial Consortium gathered together to discuss the grand plan for the Financial Consortium to fully build a national-leading benchmark for cross-border financial services and better empower the development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
Three years ago, during the 5th China-Singapore Financial Summit, the Financial Consortium was established in Chongqing. It is committed to building a collaborative hub for corridor financial institutions, exploring the formation of a market trading network and financial service system covering the regions and countries along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and promoting cross-border trade, investment, and industrial development along the Corridor.
Today, the number of members of the Financial Consortium has expanded from 9 main initiators to 80, with over 3,000 service outlets, constructing a multi-level financial service system of “Chinese capital + foreign capital, domestic + overseas, policy-based + commercial”; it has innovatively launched over 20 exclusive financial products for the Corridor and formed a number of typical cases in areas such as interbank cooperation, overseas auto consumer finance support, and matching local enterprises with overseas economic and trade opportunities.
The Financial Consortium has also integrated over 300 cross-border financial services to form the “five-piece set” of corridor finance; it has cumulatively held nearly 100 industry-finance matchmaking events, serving over 1,000 market entities going overseas.
Since its inception, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has taken “win-win cooperation” as its development philosophy. As the operation organization center of the Corridor, Chongqing naturally must also explore financial cooperation. In recent years, Chongqing has integratively promoted the construction of financial hub mechanisms, enhancing the leading and driving effect of Chongqing’s finance on the areas along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. Building the Financial Consortium is just one aspect.
In February 2026, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Financial Service Center was inaugurated in Chongqing and started physical operation. As the only financial service platform granted by the national level to local areas for serving the Corridor, the center aims to become an effective carrier for comprehensive hub financial services for inland opening-up and cross-border financial reform and innovation, forming a “offline + online, domestic + overseas” dual-track driven corridor financial service ecosystem.
As of mid-April, the center has successfully attracted 15 key institutions to settle in, launched 35 exclusive financial products, held over 10 bank-enterprise matchmaking events, and promoted loan disbursements exceeding 16.8 billion yuan, showing a good start and a momentum for leapfrog development.
Strengthening the hub mechanism for market connectivity with the international financial centers of Hong Kong, China and Singapore is also an important exploration. By upgrading the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Financial Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and signing the Chongqing-Hong Kong Financial Cooperation Agreement with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Chongqing has built a cross-border investment, financing, and settlement channel leading in the central and western regions.
Thanks to this, Chongqing’s cumulative cross-border financing has exceeded 24 billion US dollars, and it has helped enterprises from 10 provinces and regions in central and western China with cross-border financing exceeding 7 billion US dollars; cross-border receipts and payments with countries along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor have exceeded 130 billion US dollars, and the amount of cross-border RMB receipts and payments for goods trade ranks first in western China.
Cultivating “First Orders”
Innovating and Optimizing the Corridor Financial Service System
Chongqing’s exploration and innovation in the field of corridor finance go beyond these.
Recently, the Fuling Branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China successfully handled Chongqing’s first “single document system” digital RMB financing business for a manufacturing enterprise in Chongqing, with a loan amount of 4 million yuan.
This innovative business deeply combines the advantages of “single document system” financing with the payment advantages of digital RMB, marking a key step for Chongqing in the field of digital RMB empowering the foreign trade real economy, and creating a new demonstration model for corridor financial services.
Enterprises are the main source of goods for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. During the trade process, many enterprises encounter funding problems. To this end, Chongqing innovates and optimizes the corridor financial service system, promoting the upgrade and iteration of the financial service system for the industry, logistics, and trade of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, continuously injecting “financial vitality” into corridor enterprises.
Cultivate the demonstration effect of first-order innovation. In recent years, Chongqing has innovatively launched first-order businesses such as the financial lease for the world’s largest capacity liquefied ethane carrier, and the country’s first “single document system” digital bill of lading chattel pledge financing; it has promoted 9 innovations including cross-border technology loans to be selected as national-level best practice cases, with the cumulative amount of innovative projects exceeding 3 billion US dollars. These innovative explorations have enhanced Chongqing’s demonstration and leading role in the central and western regions and third-party markets.
Promote the expansion and increase of industrial finance. Focusing on the construction of the “33618” modern manufacturing cluster system, Chongqing has implemented a “five hundred billion level” monetary policy tool support plan, and vigorously implemented special actions such as the enterprise listing “Thousand Miles Horse” and “First Loan Breaking the Ice”. At the same time, it has also determined the first-phase capital contributor of national capital for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Equity Investment Fund.
Broaden corridor logistics financing channels. Focusing on corridor construction and industrial going global, it has innovatively launched over 20 exclusive credit products such as “New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Loan” and “Corridor e-Loan”. In 2025, financial institutions in the city disbursed 36.4 billion yuan in loans to the corridor logistics sector, and railway transport document financing exceeded 500 million yuan, achieving doubling.
Improve corridor trade service efficiency. It has precisely launched 27 foreign trade characteristic financial products such as “Credit Insurance e-Finance”, expanded the underwriting scale of export credit insurance for foreign trade, increased the coverage of derivative instruments such as foreign exchange forwards, effectively alleviating problems for foreign trade enterprises such as insufficient collateral and inadequate protection against exchange rate risk exposure.
Tides surge along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, finance sets sail on a new journey. With the continuous improvement of the financial support system, Chongqing, with stronger policy innovation, hub radiation, and service supply capabilities, is continuously polishing the corridor financial brand, injecting stronger, more durable, and more inclusive financial power into the construction of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, the creation of a comprehensive hub for inland opening-up, and regional high-quality development. (You Jinyu)
