(ECNS) -- China has launched its first international road freight route from Shandong Province to Georgia under the international TIR system, Qingdao Customs said on Thursday.
The route links the China-SCO demonstration zone for regional trade and economic cooperation with Georgia. It is the seventh TIR route launched by the demonstration zone and the first connecting Shandong with Georgia.
The TIR system, established under a United Nations convention on international road transport, streamlines cross-border customs clearance. Vehicles carrying valid TIR carnets can clear customs at their points of departure and destination without having to unload their cargo for repeated inspections while passing through transit countries.
Georgia serves as a key transit hub for goods traveling from China to European markets.
Two trucks loaded with clothing set off from the demonstration zone in Qingdao on the day the route opened. They are scheduled to leave China through the Horgos Port in Xinjiang, cross Kazakhstan to the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, take a ferry across the sea and travel through Azerbaijan before reaching Georgia.
The new route is expected to cut transit times to around 18 days, from the 30 to 45 days typically required previously, said Dou Kun, head of Qingdao Runshengchi Logistics Co., which handled the shipment. TIR transport is also more cost-effective and efficient than traditional sea freight, Dou said.
The demonstration zone is China's only national-level platform dedicated to regional trade and economic cooperation with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states.
In the first nine months of this year, the zone dispatched 277 TIR truck shipments carrying goods worth a total of 240 million yuan (approximately 35.86 million dollars).
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