STORY: BRI brings us many opportunities: Turkmen businessman
SHOOTING DATE: July 9, 2024
DATELINE: July 10, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:36
LOCATION: XI'AN, China
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Sahedov Begench working
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): SAHEDOV BEGENCH, Turkmen businessman
3. various of Sahedov Begench working
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): SAHEDOV BEGENCH, Turkmen businessman

STORYLINE:

Sahedov Begench, a businessman from Turkmenistan, founded an international trading company in China's Xi'an to engage in cross-border e-commerce.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): SAHEDOV BEGENCH, Turkmen businessman
"When I came to China to study, I found that the economy here had made rapid progress. The rapid development of mobile payments and logistics has brought great convenience to its people. I decided to stay in China to start a business."

In 2023, the total import and export volume between Shaanxi and five Central Asian countries reached 5.79 billion yuan (about 799 million U.S. dollars), up 178 percent year on year. From January to April this year, this import and export volume totaled 3.2 billion yuan, marking a 205.6 percent increase year on year.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): SAHEDOV BEGENCH, Turkmen businessman
"We ship about 30,000 to 50,000 parcels a year. Small parcels are sent by air. For small items such as mobile phones, it takes about six days from customer order to delivery. Many large parcels are shipped by China-Europe freight trains, which has saved us lots of time and expense. The Belt and Road Initiative is bringing us many opportunities. In the future, we want to set up an online platform in Turkmenistan to help local people purchase Chinese goods more quickly."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Xi'an, China.
(XHTV)