FIRST PORT OF CALL
Born in Lodz in central Poland, Czastka is fully aware of the benefits of doing business with China. Since the Chengdu-Lodz route was opened, Chengdu, together with other cities in west China, has developed close trade ties with the Eastern European country.
In the past, Czastka recalled, mostly high-margin goods were traded between China and Poland. Thanks to the express railway, which has greatly reduced the time and cost of transportation compared with sea freight and air cargo, Poland's signature agricultural products such as fruit juice, wine and mineral water have found their way to the Chinese market, with Chengdu being the first port of call.
According to Czastka, his company now focuses on helping Polish farmers sell their high-quality apples to China via freight trains. Poland is one of the largest apple producers in Europe.
"Because of the Belt and Road Initiative, because of the train connection, more and more Polish products have been recognized by the Chinese consumers," he said.
Besides Poland, said Czastka, the company has also been talking to clients from other European countries such as Czech Republic, Spain and Austria. Upbeat about the future of Chengdu as a logistic center of western China, Czastka said the local government has been very supportive of the development of the Chengdu-Europe railways.
"Chengdu is very effective in solving the problems that we encountered in terms of this connection. The persistence in solving these problems and in investing in these routes shows that it's a long-term strategy," he said.
"IN CHINA, WE DID IT"
The Polish businessman's enthusiasm about the Belt and Road Initiative is shared by Jerome David Gurisch, a French automotive engineer who has lived in China for three years.
Gurisch came to China in 2014 and worked in the central Hubei Province for six month before settling down in Chengdu to help establish a new factory for his company, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile (DPCA), a joint venture of French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor Corporation.
"When we just arrived, there was absolutely nothing here. We started from a scratch," recalled Gurisch.
The Chengdu plant, which opened in September 2016, is the fourth built by the DPCA and the first outside its Hubei headquarters. "It is unimaginable elsewhere in the world to build a car factory of such world-class standards in only 23 month. But in China, we did it," said Gurisch, with a confident smile on his face.
The "Chinese speed" that has marveled the French expert is propelled by the Belt and Road Initiative, which is poised to inject fresh vitality to the development of China's western regions.
Connectivity boosted by the transnational railways, among other favorable policies, has encouraged a growing number of Chinese companies to relocate their capacity from the coastal regions to western cities such as Chengdu, where a new free trade zone has been established.
With an investment of 12.3 billion yuan (2 billion U.S. dollars) and an annual capacity of 320,000 vehicles, DPCA's Chengdu factory now exports a variety of cars to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia.
These vehicles will be sold to the European market via cargo trains in the near future, according to the company.
