Guo Gang, deputy head of Inner Mongolia Department of Commerce, presides over the conference. [Photo by Yuan Hui/China Daily]

The Silk Road Port Regional Cooperation Conference and the Sino-Russia-Europe Container Transportation Facilitation Seminar were held in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia autonomous region on June 16.

The Belt and Road Initiative, Sino-Russia-Europe freight trains and the Silk Road Economic Belt were hot issues at the meeting.

Manzhouli is the largest land port on the Chinese border. In March, 2014, the first Sino-Europe train started its maiden trip from Suzhou in Jiangsu province, stopped in Manzhouli then headed to Warsaw in Europe.

In addition to the Suzhou-Manzhouli-Europe rail lines, six more cross-border trains to Europe opened. Sino-Europe trains are now a convenient and efficient land channel from China to Russia and Europe.

Following the Belt and Road Initiative, Manzhouli has been strengthening cooperation on customs clearance with other areas and ports, and the port's cross-border container transport has expanded to the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Rim and countries in Southeast Asia.

In order to further regional cooperation and facilitate cross-border trains, the Manzhouliu Declaration was signed by representatives of port offices in 16 provinces and cities, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Liaoning and Chongqing.

The declaration agreed to build a coordinated mechanism among the 16 ports and to further exchange and cooperation. They vowed to promote integrated customs to streamline trade procedures, and work for an open and connective transportation network.

Provisions on the construction of e-port platforms and a single-window model, which aims to provide one-stop services, were also inked in the declaration.

A containers supervision center was unveiled at the conference, the first one that operating multimodal transportation business in Inner Mongolia and Northeastern China. This supervision center is expected to facilitate the development of Sino-Russia-Europe freight trains.