Economic Daily:

Recently, the official Weibo micro-blogging account of the Ministry of Transport, named "The Road by My Doorstep," has been particularly popular, showing that there is a strong level of public interest in the construction of rural roads. The Outline proposes to comprehensively promote the building of "Four Good Rural Roads." May I ask the minister, what shortcomings do we have in the construction of rural roads in China? What are the next steps to promote its high-quality development? Thank you.

Li Xiaopeng:

I will ask Mr. Dai to answer this question.

Dai Dongchang:

This question is very good. The development of rural roads impacts tens of thousands of families, broad rural areas, and the broad masses of farmers. It also impacts everyone in this room. The phrase we just mentioned, "The Road by My Doorstep," is used by the Ministry of Transport in its social media account. The public response to it has been very enthusiastic, everyone now deeply feels the changes in the transportation conditions when they return home -- the roads by the doorstep of their homes in their hometowns are no longer the same roads they had in the past. Now when people go back, they will have a feeling of joy and “jamais vu.” Many feel that they can't even recognize the roads, because the roads in their hometowns have changed. As the changes in transport have brought about a series of changes, I think your question hits a key point.

Let me first make a brief introduction -- rural roads refer to county roads, township roads and village roads in our nation. The administrative levels of our national highways are classified as national, provincial, county and township. Rural roads are an important part of our comprehensive transportation system. They are also an important part of the basic transport network as introduced by the minister just now. They are like our country's capillaries and are very important. Their scale now accounts for more than 80% of the total length of China's roads. The total mileage covered by rural roads was 4.04 million kilometers at the end of last year. As evident, the scale is very large, and this is related to tens of thousands of households and is related to all aspects. The "Four Good Rural Roads" and the development of rural roads are also an important part of building China's strength in transport.

As mentioned earlier, over the years, we have been working hard to promote the building of "Four Good Rural Roads," which was personally summarized and proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping. He took the lead himself in pushing for it to be practiced as it is an important project to improve people's lives and can win people's hearts and show the government's care. Under the guidance of the spirit of the important instructions by General Secretary Xi Jinping, the Ministry of Transport has actively pushed forward the implementation of the instructions of "Four Good Rural Roads" over the years. We refer to the instructions of "Four Good Rural Roads," which means we need to do a good job in the four aspects of construction, management, maintenance and operation of rural roads. This sounds like a very usual thing, but it is not easy to do it well.

Based on preliminary work, this year the Ministry of Transport and the seven ministries and commissions issued the "Guidelines for Promoting the High-quality Development of the 'Four Good' Rural Roads." This guideline on high-quality development was issued based on previous work. After years of hard work, by the end of this year, all the administrative villages and towns which possess the necessary conditions are able to achieve the goal of having tarmac and cement roads. And by the end of next year, all the administrative villages and towns which possess the necessary conditions will be able to have shuttle bus services. But even after the basic results are achieved, we will not stop there. The guidelines were jointly issued by us and the seven ministries and commissions for promoting the high-quality development of rural roads. Based on preliminary work, we will further promote high-quality development and better implement the requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping.

At the same time, we have also issued a series of documents such as "Guidelines on Implementing the Spirit of the Important Instructions by General Secretary Xi Jinping of Doing a Good Job in Making Transport Construction Projects More Inclined to Benefit Access to Villages and Rural Households." Originally, we said that this year's and next year's goal are to build in townships and villages with the necessary qualities. We also facing a large number of natural villages. We are now doing it step by step and will do it for a long time. This is what is meant by high-quality development, and we will promote deeper forms of development.

By the end of 2018, China's total length of rural roads had reached 4.04 million kilometers, and the proportion of tarmac and cement roads in townships and administrative villages were 99.64% and 99.47%, respectively. The bus service access rate was 98.6% for townships and for administrative villages it was 97.1%. After years of unrelenting efforts, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the transportation landscape in the broad rural areas of China, especially in the vast poverty-stricken areas, have undergone tremendous change. The travel conditions for the broad masses of farmers have been significantly improved. The sense of benefit, happiness, and security have been enhanced, which is fully reflected by everyone's messages on the account "The Road by My Doorstep" mentioned above.

We would say, as General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, the building of the "Four Good Rural Roads" has achieved genuine results, bringing more popularity and wealth to the rural areas, especially to the poverty-stricken areas, and rallying people at the grassroots level for the CPC. While acknowledging these achievements, we are also clearly aware that there are still some problems that cannot be ignored in the building of the "Four Good Rural Roads." These are the shortcomings and problems mentioned by the reporter just now. The task of rural road construction and problem of shuttle bus service access are still very challenging. We have only achieved the goals we have set at this stage. The tasks we face in the next stage are still very difficult and we still have a long way to go. There are also problems such as "worn tarmac roads returning to the state of sandy roads," "once smooth roads deteriorating due to the lack of maintenance," as well as the problem of rural shuttle bus services having access but not being able to remain in operation for long. These phenomena still exist. In particular, the problem of rural road management and maintenance is still outstanding. Over the many years of construction, the building of many rural roads has cost a lot of energy and financial resources. However, if management and maintenance cannot keep up, it will become a big problem. This is a problem we are aware of. This is a shortcoming that we are currently focusing on.

In order to solve this shortcoming, "The Outline for Building China's Strength in Transport" is clearly proposing that we comprehensively promote the building of the "Four Good Rural Roads" and establish a standardized and sustainable management and maintenance mechanism. Recently, you may have noticed that Xinhua News Agency authorized the release of this new guideline yesterday. The General Office of the State Council also issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Rural Roads Management and Maintenance System" and deployed the reform of the rural roads management and maintenance system. I would say that the main purpose of this document is to focus on solving the shortcomings and problems of management and maintenance in building "Four Good Rural Roads," promote the high-quality development of the "Four Good Rural Roads," support the building of China's strength in transport, and serve the implementation of the rural village revitalization strategy.

Let me briefly introduce the "Opinions" issued by the General Office of the State Council recently. It clearly states that by 2022, we will basically establish a rural road management and maintenance system and mechanism with clear rights and responsibilities, and form a pattern with clear government financial input responsibility and active participation of social forces. With this, the management capacity on rural roads will be significantly improved, and the management system will begin to take shape. By 2035 a comprehensive and highly-efficient rural road management and maintenance system  will be fully established, and the basic public services for urban and rural road transportation will be made equal. The road conditions and road environment will be comprehensively improved, the rural road management capacity will be comprehensively enhanced, and the management system will be comprehensively improved. As for how to make up for any shortcomings, the document from the State Council and its General Office has outlined plans for that, and we will try our best to make up for any shortcomings.

As the next step, the Ministry of Transport and the relevant departments will put forward requirements on how to strengthen the implementation of the "Opinions," and urge all local governments to seriously carry out and implement the "Opinions".It will also adopt the principles of quality-oriented, safety-first, natural harmony and green development to deepen rural road management and the reform of the maintenance system. This will promote the formation of a government-led, industry-directed, sector-coordinated work situation that has mass participation. This will demonstrate the requirements and principles applicable to the development of rural roads, boost the high-quality development of the "Four Good Rural Roads," provide better guarantees for the masses of farmers to increase their wealth and live a well-off life, and also to speed up the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Thank you.

Li Xiaopeng:

I would like to add a little bit, to reveal two small messages. First, due to the needs of reform and development, we are now promoting the revision of the Highway Law.We hope that the legal status of rural roads will be clarified in the revision of the Highway Law. Once it is passed, though this will take a long time and it will undergo a long process for the National People's Congress to discuss it in the future, it will have a significant impact on the development of rural roads. And the second part I’d like to reveal is: in the process of promoting the revision of the Highway Law, we are promoting the formulation of rural road regulations, which is a subordinate regulation of the Highway Law. This clarifies a series of requirements for rural road construction, management, maintenance and operation. I would say that if the law and the regulation are revised and formulated to achieve their effects, it will better promote the implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping's instructions for rural road construction, so this is very significant. Thank you.