Jose Luis Irigoyen, Secretary of the Transport and Communication Technology Global Development Bureau of the World Bank, visited the Three Gorges Modern Logistics Center at Baiyang Pork, and held a forum for the project briefing on November 20. Yuan Weidong, deputy mayor of Yichang, met with the delegation.

　　Yuan pointed out that the construction of the Three Gorges Modern Logistics Center, as Yichang’s first project financed by the World Bank, not only coordinated with "One Belt and One Road" and seized the strategic opportunity when opening up and developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt, but also was an requirement for the building of "a Yichang-to-Europe" international transport channel and Yichang’s trillion economic corridor along the Yangtze river. Yichang would also spare no effort to advance the step of the work in accordance with the relevant requirements of the World Bank, helping the World Bank\'s capital, technologies and wisdom to bear abundant fruits in Yichang.

　　Jose Luis Irigoyen said that the development and construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was an important component of China\'s imminent 13th "Five-Year Plan". Yichang, located in central China as an important node of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, with its unique location and resource advantages, is meant to build such an integrated transport mode. At the same time, Yichang has already started financing and other preparatory work for the Three Gorges Modern Logistics Center. With high processing efficiency and strong coordination ability, the World Bank is confident in making it become another demonstration project after Yiba Highway, and one of the best practices.

　　The Three Gorges Modern Logistics Center project fitted into the Bank’s 2015--2017 fiscal alternative plan in 2014, which successively passed the bank’s identification and preparatory group’s study in April and October this year. The project covers an area of 2134 mu, including Baiyang Logistics Park, Baiyang Port operation area, road and transport infrastructure, the Three Gorges Modern Logistics Information Center and construction of project management and institutional capacity. The project aims to make Baiyang Port the core of the Three Gorges Project and a new channel to the sea for China’s western cities, and build Baiyang Logistics Park into a hub and an intelligent town for industrial logistics and modern internet of things. It is estimated that a total investment of $ 467.5 million is poured into the project, in which $ 200 million is loaned from the World Bank, equivalent to 1.27 billion RMB, accounting up to 42.49% of the total investment. (Reporter Lei Pengcheng, Correspondents Wu Yan, Lei Langqi)