A China-Vietnam cross-border container train leaves Nanning, bound for Yen Vien Station in Vietnam. [Photo by Yu Jing/China News Service]

The new Guangxi International Freight Train Operation Platform began operating on May 14, with a China-Vietnam cross-border container train leaving that day from Nanning.

The train, loaded with sci-tech chemicals products and paper products, was scheduled to travel 1.5 days to get to Yen Vien Station in Vietnam.

The platform will undertake the operations business for cross-border container trains in Guangxi.

The aim is to enable Guangxi to further participate in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and the New International Land-Sea Trade corridor and also to help cut the logistics costs of companies.

The platform is designed to solve such problems as the long traveling time costs of cross-border trains, the unfixed operations schedule and the long waiting time for subsidies - to increase the competitiveness of China-Vietnam cross-border container trains.

Huang Jing, deputy general manager of commercial customer Nanning Donglian Supply Chain Service, said that with the platform, it now takes less than 48 hours for cargo to be transported to Vietnam instead of the previous five to six days and the logistics costs are also much cheaper.