On December 17, the People's Daily published a signed article by Minister of Communications Li Xiaopeng, Accelerating the Building of National Strength in Transportation, which profoundly discusses the implementation of the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, accelerating the construction of people's satisfaction, strong protection, and the world's leading national strength in transportation.
Transportation is the top priority for building a strong country. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed, “We shall build more and more advanced aviation hubs and a better integrated transportation system to accelerate the construction of national strength in transportation.” The Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 (hereinafter referred to as the Proposal) issued in the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee makes special arrangements and puts forward clear requirements for speeding up the construction of national strength in transportation. We must accelerate the construction of people's satisfaction, strong protection, the world's leading national strength in transportation, for the comprehensive construction of a socialist modern country as a good "forerunner".
Enhancing the sense of responsibility and urgency to accelerate the construction of a national strength in transportation
The Proposal proposes to accelerate the construction of a national strength in transportation, improve comprehensive transport corridors, integrate transportation hubs and logistics networks, accelerate the networking of rail transit in urban clusters and metropolitan areas, and improve access to rural and border areas. It is a major deployment made by the Party Central Committee based on national conditions, focusing on the overall situation, and facing the future, marking a new journey in the construction of a national strength in transportation. We must deeply understand the importance of accelerating the construction of a national strength in transportation and further enhance the sense of responsibility and urgency.
Achieving the important support of the second centennial goal. The modernization of transportation is an important symbol of the national modernization. China must build a strong transportation system as a result of its special national conditions such as vast territory, large population, uneven distribution of resources and industries. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China more than 70 years ago, China's transportation has developed from “bottleneck restriction” to “basic adaptation”, and its infrastructure and transportation service scale rank among the top in the world, making it a veritable transportation country and accelerating its progress towards a national strength in transportation. The rapid development of transportation has significantly changed the face of China's urban and rural areas, and strongly supports the realization of the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way. It will provide solid support for the construction of a modern socialist country by taking advantage of the momentum to accelerate the construction of a national strength in transportation, taking the lead in modernizing the field of transportation and building a modern comprehensive transportation system.
Building the strategic task of a new development pattern. Transportation is a basic, pioneering, strategic industries and important service industries in the national economy, and has an important position and role in building a new development pattern. To build a new development pattern, it is required to take supply-side structural reform as the strategic direction and expand domestic demand as the strategic basis, to promote economic layout optimization and regional coordinated development, improve modern industry and circulation systems, and accelerate the opening up to a higher level, all of which urgently require transportation to play the role of "forerunner". To accelerate the construction of a national strength in transportation, we must closely follow the goal of building a new development pattern, strive to build a modern and high-quality integrated three-dimensional transportation network, smooth the modern circulation system and the international logistics supply chain system, improve transportation efficiency and reduce logistics costs, and strive to make transportation a solid support for the coordinated development of the modern industrial system, an important link between internal and external economic cycles, and a guarantee for the security and stability of the industrial chain supply chain, so as to build a solid foundation of the national economic cycle.
An inevitable requirement for meeting the people's growing needs for a better life. With the changes of major social contradictions in China, people's travel modes and goods circulation modes are undergoing profound changes. The characteristics of multi-level, diversified, personalized travel demand and small volume, high value, decentralized, fast freight demand are more obvious, “green sharing” has become an important mode of travel, and the availability and timeliness of freight transportation are more demanding. Therefore, we must accelerate the transformation of supply of transportation from “original transportation” to “fast and timely transportation”, and significantly improve the efficiency and quality of transportation services. To speed up the construction of a national strength in transportation, we shall focus on the people's needs for a better life, strive to build first-class facilities, first-class technology, first-class management and first-class services, and make efforts to enable the broad masses of the people enjoy more convenient transportation, obtain more equitable and more efficient transportation services, and constantly enhance the people's sense of acquisition, happiness and security.
Complying with the objective needs of China to enter a new stage of development. At present and in the future, China's development is still in an important period of strategic opportunities, but opportunities and challenges have new developments and changes. Accelerating the construction of a national strength in transportation is an objective need to adapt to high-quality development, seize new opportunities and meet new challenges. At present, the internal conditions and external environment of China's transportation development are undergoing profound and complex changes. From an international perspective, the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation are accelerating, and smart transportation, green transportation and shared transportation have become important forces for countries to explore new advantages in transportation development. From a domestic point of view, China has entered the stage of high-quality development, but the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development is still prominent, mainly in the form of low level of infrastructure networking, insufficient innovation capacity of key technologies and equipment, and low efficiency of comprehensive transportation. To speed up the construction of a national strength in transportation, we shall benchmark the world advanced level, strive to solve the problems in development, continuously deepen the structural reform of the supply side of transportation, and achieve higher quality, more efficient, more equitable, more sustainable and safer development.
Comprehensive implementation of the key tasks of accelerating the construction of a national strength in transportation
In September 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Program of Building National Strength in Transportation, and will issue and implement the Program of the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Plan. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” Period, it is necessary to keep a close eye on the tasks deployed in the Proposal, seize key areas and key links, identify key points and breakthroughs, and promote the construction of a national strength in transportation to a new progress.
Promoting networking of infrastructure. Focusing on the perfect layout and three-dimensional interconnection of transportation infrastructure, we must make overall plans for the planning and construction of railways, highways and waterways, speed up the construction of comprehensive transportation corridors, hubs and network systems, and strive to build a developed express network, a perfect trunk network and an extensive basic network; build the main framework of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network that runs through the main economic sectors; optimize and improve the layout of integrated transportation corridors, make up for shortcomings in inland waterways, central and western railways, promote the implementation of a number of strategic and basic major projects such as the Sichuan-Tibet Railway and the Western New Land-Sea Corridor, and promote the improvement and expansion of the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network; enhance the traffic carrying capacity of urban clusters and metropolitan areas, promote the transportation integration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone, form a multi-node, grid-based and full-coverage layout with rail transit and expressways as the backbone to create a number of international and national comprehensive transportation hubs; improve the transportation infrastructure network that integrates urban and rural areas, further promote the construction of the "constructed, managed, maintained and operated rural roads", promote the networking of rural roads and their access to villages, and improve the equalization of public services for urban and rural transportation; accelerate the construction of border-to-border highways to improve the traffic access to the border areas.
Promoting the facilitation of logistics and transportation. We shall focus on accelerating the formation of "1-2-3 circles” for the transportation of goods, improve quality, reduce costs and increase efficiency, promote the integration and development of transportation and logistics, and accelerate the improvement of modern logistics system, thus forming a safe and efficient logistics network with internal and external connectivity; continue to optimize the transportation structure, promote the orderly transfer of bulk cargo and medium- and long-range cargo to be transported by railways and waterways, advance the development of multimodal transportation, give full play to the advantages of railway freight, and strengthen high-speed rail freight; strengthen the capacity-building of international air cargo transportation, promote the construction of logistics hubs such as world-class port clusters, airport clusters, and China-Europe freight train assembly centers, establish an emergency logistics system with adequate reserves, rapid response, and strong impact resistance, improve the transshipment system and ground service network, and promote the development of modern international logistics supply chains; improve the urban and rural end distribution network, accelerate the construction of county and rural logistics system, and smooth the two-way flow of agricultural products and consumer goods channels; develop new models of logistics services, promote unmanned distribution, time-sharing distribution, common distribution and other advanced logistics organization methods, promote the development of cold chain logistics, and improve logistics efficiency and reduce logistics costs.
Promoting travel services to be convenient. We shall focus on accelerating the formation of the "1-2-3 circles” for passenger trips, increase the green, safe, convenient, etc. supply of high-quality travel services, and strive to achieve convenient, comfortable, economical and efficient transportation services; build a multi-level passenger transportation service system, develop interregional rapid passenger transportation services with high-speed railway and aviation as the mainstay, improve the public passenger transportation services in urban clusters and metropolitan areas, further promote the comprehensive control of urban traffic congestion, and accelerate the integration of urban and rural passenger transportation services; create an integrated passenger travel chain, rely on integrated passenger transport hubs to achieve effective connectivity between multiple modes of transportation, develop passenger intermodal transportation, and encourage and guide green travel; expand diversified passenger transportation services, encourage and regulate the development of new modes such as customized passenger transportation and online car-hailing, and create a service system based on mobile smart terminal technology to realize travel as a service.
Promoting the autonomy of transportation equipment. We shall aim at the forefront of science and technology in the world, grasp the trend of intelligence and greening, and promote the advanced, applicable, complete and controllable transportation equipment; strengthen the research and development of equipment power systems, breakthroughs in the key technologies of high-efficiency, high-power engine equipment; reinforce the research and development of new vehicles, promote the research and development as well as application of special equipment, and popularize new energy, intelligent, digital and lightweight transportation equipment and complete sets of technical equipment; develop intelligent transportation, promote the deep integration of new technologies such as big data with the transportation industry, empower traditional transportation infrastructure with new technologies, and strive to be the main force of new infrastructure.
Promoting the modernization of transportation governance. We shall adhere to the cooperation among government, market and society, and create a new pattern of transportation governance with cooperation, high efficiency, law and governance and joint participation; strengthen the guidance of the rule of law, speed up the formulation and revision of the "Leading Law" and corresponding supporting laws and regulations in the fields of railways, highways and waterways, and promote the formation of a comprehensive traffic laws and regulations system with complete systems and mutual connection; deepen the reform of the management system of railways, highways, waterways, and airspace, advance the reform of investment and financing, and establish a system and mechanism that are compatible with the goals and tasks of the national strength in transportation; improve market governance rules, further promote the reform of “streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services”, optimize the business environment, and build a unified, open, competitive, and orderly modern transportation market system; encourage social organizations to participate in industry governance, expand public participation in transportation channel governance, comprehensively improve the civilization of transportation participants, and guide civilized travel.
Accelerating the construction of national strength in transportation needs to grasp several key issues
As the acceleration of the construction of a national strength in transportation is a major strategic task involving the reform of concepts, behaviors as well as systems and mechanisms, we shall give full play to the advantages of China's socialist system, make full use of resources from all sides, mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties, and form a pattern in which the whole society participates together.
Adhering to serve the overall interests of the country. To speed up the construction of a national strength in transportation, we shall not only strengthen the transportation itself, but also support the national strength and the people's wealth; commit to a people-centered philosophy of development, consciously serve the overall interests, focus on the major national strategies and build a new development pattern to open up the “main traffic lines” and smooth the “auxiliary traffic lines”, continuously improve the service capacity, better meet the needs of national economic and social development, and build people's satisfactory transportation; adhere to moderately advanced planning and construction, give full play to the leading and supporting role of transportation in building a modern economic system, rural revitalization and new urbanization, and take the lead in realizing transportation modernization in the process of national modernization.
Holding on the principle of combining long-term and short-term considerations. It is a long-term strategic task to accelerate the construction of a national strength in transportation, which requires not only to focus on the long-term considerations, but also to base on the current situation. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” Period, we shall fully implement the tasks deployed in the Proposal, focus on the outstanding problems of insufficient imbalance in transportation development, and make continuous efforts to improve the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network; aim at the long-term goal in 2035, implement the Program of the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Plan, and do a good job in research and demonstration, project reserve, etc., so as to ensure that the construction of a national strength in transportation is stable and far-reaching.
Adhering to collaborate efficiently. China has turned to the stage of high-quality development, paying more attention to structural optimization and overall efficiency improvement. On the one hand, we shall, according to the resource conditions and spatial characteristics of each place, make full use of water sources, air resources, and land resources to give full play to comparative advantages and make overall plans for railways, highways and waterways of a national strength in transportation. On the other hand, we shall accelerate the transition from the relatively independent development of various modes of transportation to pay more attention to integrated development, balance various modes of transportation, strengthen the coordination and deep integration of connectivity, improve the modern comprehensive transportation system, and improve the comprehensive transportation efficiency.
Persisting in deepening reform. Reform and innovation is the driving force for the development of transportation, which must run through the whole process of accelerating the construction of a national strength in transportation. We shall continue to deepen the reform, adhere to the pilot first, typical guide, encourage qualified places and enterprises to take the lead in carrying out the pilot of national strength in transportation, and form a batch of typical achievements that can be promoted and replicated; uphold fundamental principles and breaking new ground, give full play to the various advantages formed by China's transportation exploration, continue to promote innovation in concepts, technologies, systems and policies, and promote the modernization of transportation governance system and governance capacity, so as to provide a solid guarantee for accelerating the construction of a national strength in transportation.
Upholding Chinese characteristics. To speed up the construction of a national strength in transportation, we shall have both a keen awareness of national realities and a global vision, and take the road of open development and mutually beneficial and win-win; scientifically grasp China's actual national conditions such as population distribution, industrial layout and regional differences between urban and rural areas, make good use of the advantages of super-large-scale market, choose the development mode and path according to local conditions, concentrate on doing its own thing well, and take the road of national strength in transportation with Chinese characteristics; benchmark the world-class transportation mode, be good at drawing on international advanced philosophies and experience, make good use of the domestic and international markets and resources, deepen foreign exchange and cooperation, form new advantages in international cooperation and competition, and continuously improve the international competitiveness and influence of transportation.
