The SCO Demonstration Area (SCODA) in the first half of 2025 saw the departure of 208 TIR vehicles, surging 188.9% from a year earlier, which transported RMB140 mln worth of goods, soaring 224.5% compared with the year before. Shipments transported by Chinese TIR vehicles in the SCODA maintained the momentum in the first quarter, the most in China.

A TIR vehicle fully loaded with medical apparatus and instruments recently went through formalities such as customs declaration and inspection in the SCODA TIR assembly center before heading for Moscow, capital of Russia. Nowadays, a daily average of at least one TIR vehicle departs from the SCODA for Russia or central Asia.

The TIR stands for Transports Internationaux Routiers or International Road Transport. Transport vehicles need merely one document to have free passage in more than signatory states (parties) to the TIR treaty. Thanks to the high-efficiency custom clearance mechanism featuring “one document throughout the process, no transfer and transshipment” and a series of facilitation measures, a rising number of “Chinese-made” and “Qingdao-made” products become more competitive on the international arena with lower costs and higher efficiency stemming from TIR transport. To date, the SCODA has launched four international TIR routes, including China-Russia, China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan, and China-Kazakhstan, emerging as a regional transport hub for international road transport. (Wang Shan / Wang Meng)