Xiamen Port is one of the major hubs of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. [Photo/VCG]

The Silk Road Maritime Road project has made remarkable achievements since its launch in 2018, according to local media reports on Dec 20.

Over the past year, the project has opened 50 routes. It has provided nearly 1,625 shipping services, with a container handling capability of more than 1.4 million TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent units, in the first 11 months of this year, up 10.4 percent year-on-year. It is expected that the handling capacity of the project will top 1.5 million TEUs by the end of this year.

Xiamen has made strong moves in promoting the development of the Silk Road Maritime project over the years, officials said.

A wide range of measures have been implemented to speed up the development of its port business, boosting its profile around the world, according to Huang Qiang, executive vice-mayor of Xiamen.

Huang added that Xiamen has beefed up its efforts to accelerate the integrated development of land and maritime silk roads, with combined sea-rail transportation growing by 66.3 percent year-on-year.

"The city also introduced efficiency strategies driven by smart logistics to drive the efficiency, productivity and cost reductions in waterway transport and Xiamen's trade with countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road also rose 10.3 percent," Huang said.

Huang stressed that the project is expected to offer great business opportunities for countries and regions along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

He said the port city will build cooperation for green development and work hard for an updated version for the project.

Government officials also expressed their hope that all sides taking part in the project should work together.

They should aim to build an international trade service platform with standard services, a convenient operational process and intelligent management system, helping promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.