The Paper.cn:

General Secretary Xi Jinping made important instructions on the good building, management, maintenance, and operation of rural roads in 2014, 2016, and 2017, respectively. How has the Ministry of Transport promoted the high-quality development of the rural roads? Recently, the Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs of the Central Committee of the CPC and a State Council executive meeting made new arrangements for rural road construction and added new tasks to this year's original targets. How will the tasks be implemented next? Thank you.

Xu Chengguang: 

Thank you for your question. The project of building, managing, maintaining, and operating rural roads was summarized, proposed, arranged, and promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping. The project is vital to improving people's livelihood and delivering good governance, which has gained public support. The implementation of this project will not only boost the economic development of rural areas, especially those in poverty, but also promote equity and shared benefits between urban and rural areas so as to help achieve common prosperity and inclusive development. 

Since the Party's 18th National Congress, the Ministry of Transport has thoroughly implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on rural roads to promote their high-quality development. 

First, the rural highway network has basically taken shape. Over the past decade, the central government has invested 743.3 billion yuan of vehicle purchase tax in rural highways, 506.8 billion yuan of which has been used in poor areas. A total of 2.53 million km of rural highways have been built or upgraded, making 1,040 townships and towns as well as 105,000 administrative villages accessible by paved roads. The total length of rural highways increased from 3.564 million kilometers at the end of 2011 to 4.466 million kilometers at the end of 2021, a net increase of more than 900,000 kilometers. 

Second, the highway conditions in rural areas have been constantly improved. The system of road chiefs at village, township, and county levels has been established. By the end of 2021, the paving rate, maintenance rate, and rate of rural highways evaluated as excellent, good, and medium increased to 89.8%, 99.5%, and 87.4%, respectively, which is basically equivalent to the service capacity of trunk highways in the country. 

Third, the transport services have been greatly refined. More than 50,000 extra administrative villages have been accessible by bus, and all administrative villages with the right conditions now have bus services. The dream of rural people enjoying convenient bus services has become a reality. In rural areas, the integrated development of passenger, freight and mail routes has also been significantly boosted, and transport services have been basically ensured. 

Fourth, transport has played a remarkable role in alleviating poverty and advancing prosperity. The integrated development of transport and e-commerce, as well as goods exchanged between cities and the countryside have facilitated the flow of people, goods, and capital between urban and rural areas, increasing rural incomes. A total of 774,000 rural highway-related jobs were created, with an average annual income of more than 13,000 yuan, and 381,000 people lifted out of poverty have taken such jobs. It can be said that in the past decade, the good building, management, maintenance, and operation of rural roads have brought about great changes in rural areas, which has made the countryside more prosperous and beautiful, brought vitality and wealth to rural areas, especially poor regions, and helped the Party gain more public support at the primary level. 

Next, we will follow the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and actively and steadily build, manage, maintain, and operate rural roads. After completing the original annual targets of rural highways ahead of schedule, we will launch a new round of rural road construction and renovation efforts to build or upgrade an additional 30,000 kilometers of rural highways, implement a safety and life protection project along 30,000 kilometers of them, and renovate 3,000 dilapidated bridges on rural roads. With this on top of the original targets, it is expected that 150,000 kilometers of rural highways will be built or upgraded, 80,000 kilometers will see the implementation of a safety and life protection project, and 8,000 dilapidated bridges on rural highways will be refurbished within the year so as to provide more effective transport support for rural revitalization and common prosperity. Thank you.