Research On The Impact Of The Opening Of CR-Express On The Export Competitiveness Of Cities

In the past 40 years,China has experienced great changes.The east wind of reform and opening up has opened the door of China’s opening up.In the context of the continuous improvement of China’s opening-up level and the continuous optimization of its export trade structure,exploring the path to further improve the core competitiveness of export trade is not only an inevitable requirement for the development of high-quality foreign trade,but also a key path to accelerate the upgrading of industrial structure and the transformation of economic growth mode.In recent years,building a new era trade power has become a distinct task put forward by the Party Central Committee and the State Council with a view to the overall situation of the national economy.As the main platform for promoting economic and trade cooperation with countries along the "the Belt and Road" and an important starting point for promoting the construction of the "the Belt and Road",CR-Express is duty bound to this.Moreover,the opening of CR-Express has opened up the land transport channel between the Eurasian continent,making the train not only an engine to improve the openness of inland cities in China,but also a major driving force to drive the export growth of cities.In view of this,a question of great theoretical and practical value is whether the opening of CR-Express,as an important engine to promote the growth of urban exports and a new open transport channel,can effectively promote the competitiveness of urban exports? If the above question is true,what path will CR-Express take to help the city’s export competitiveness? Is there any heterogeneity in the positive effect of the opening of CR-Express on the city’s export competitiveness? Clarifying the above issues is of great theoretical and practical significance for realizing the steady growth of foreign trade,accelerating the mutual promotion of domestic and international "double circulation",and building a trade power in the new era.This paper uses the method of theoretical analysis and empirical test to comprehensively study the impact of the opening of CR-Express on the promotion of urban export competitiveness.In the part of theoretical analysis,first of all,under the framework of "New Economic Geography",on the one hand,based on the theory of "transportation cost effect" and "center periphery",the general relationship between the opening of CR-Express and the competitiveness of urban exports is sorted out.On the other hand,based on the regional innovation theory,financial sustainable development theory and regional trade opening theory,it is inferred that the opening of CR-Express can promote the competitiveness of urban exports through three paths: innovation level,financial development level and trade opening level.Then,through the description of the current situation of the development of CR-Express and the related trends of the overall export competitiveness level and the development of CR-Express,it provides practical experience support for the theoretical deduction of the conclusion hypothesis.In the empirical analysis part,this paper takes the opening of CR-Express as a quasi natural experiment,and takes the data of 283 prefecture level cities in China from 2005 to 2020 as the research sample.It matches the opening information of CR-Express with the data information of prefecture level cities.Using the multi-phase DID model with inconsistent time points,this paper evaluates the impact of CR-Express opening on urban export competitiveness and its mechanism.The main conclusions are as follows: First,As an important carrier of deepening economic and trade cooperation between China and countries along the "Belt and Road",the opening of CR-Express has significantly improved the export competitiveness of cities.After considering such robustness tests as endogenous interference,sample selection error,control of time-varying trend and replacement of core variables,change of model setting and elimination of other core cities,the improvement effect of CR-Express on urban export competitiveness is still stable.Secondly,with the help of the theoretical framework of new economic geography,this study finds that innovation promotion,financial development and trade opening are the main mechanisms for the opening of CR-Express to enhance the export competitiveness of cities,and the heterogeneity test also shows that the opening of CR-Express can play a greater role in promoting the export competitiveness of cities in the western corridor and central urban areas,At the same time,the CR-Express can also achieve linkage with open platforms such as the pilot Free Trade Zone to jointly enhance the city’s export competitiveness.Third,in view of the fact that high quality has become a new requirement for the development of CR-Express in the new era,this paper finds that the high quality development trend of CR-Express can also have a significant positive effect on urban export competitiveness based on the dimensions of unified brand,delivery volume,return ratio,urban cooperation and multimodal transport.This conclusion not only meets the development requirements of CR-Express in the new era,It also verifies that CR-Express has a full prospect of sustainable and high-quality development.The above conclusions reveal the positive effect of the opening of CR-Express on the improvement of urban export competitiveness,and indicate that as an important starting point for promoting the construction of the "Belt and Road",CR-Express is fully expected to become a new fulcrum for building a new era of trade power.Based on the research conclusions of this thesis,this thesis puts forward the following policy recommendations on how to better serve the development of urban export trade in the future: 1.Firmly build the "going out" platform with CR-Express as the carrier,and play the role of diversified economy.Different cities should adjust measures to local conditions,seize the opening opportunity of CR-Express,reasonably plan their own development path,and use CR-Express to promote the development of local foreign trade into a new stage.2.Comply with the trend of sustainable and high-quality development and polish the brand of CR-Express.Innovate the system design,strengthen the unified brand construction,guide the communication,exchange and cooperation between the cities that open the train,and strive to form the development model of "center" driving "periphery" to standardize the train development.Strengthen the cooperation between inland cities and coastal port cities,and encourage the development of new multi-level open transport models.Extend the cooperation vision to the outside,build a unified digital information service platform,realize the real-time sharing of information such as the type,quantity,destination country and customs declaration of goods shipped,and create a "digital and information" train.3.Properly control policy intervention and escort the development of CR-Express.The government departments should play the role of "invisible hand",reduce excessive intervention in the development of CR-Express,and hand over the autonomy of development to the market;Increase R&D investment and create a good innovation environment;Introduce measures to create a convenient financial environment;Deepen the linkage between the CR-Express and the major national opening strategy.4.On the basis of trade cooperation,we will promote the transformation of CR-Express to industrial cooperation and build a big channel to smooth the Eurasian value chain.Promote the facilitation of customs clearance and strengthen the international cooperation of customs of countries along the line;Increase policy support in tax,trade,investment and other fields,and improve the level of enterprise foreign investment facilitation;Enhance the capacity of CR-Express service industry cooperation.