BEIJING, March 19 -- A freight train bound for Tashkent, Uzbekistan, departed from Beijing at about 10 a.m. on Wednesday, marking the official launch of the first Beijing-Central Asia freight train service.

The train is loaded with 90 standard containers of auto parts, medicines and other goods from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and is set to exit China through Horgos Port in Xinjiang before arriving in the Uzbek capital in about 14 days, according to sources with China Railway Beijing Group Co., Ltd.

The freight train service provides a new platform for Beijing to integrate further into the high-quality, coordinated development of the Belt and Road Initiative, they said.