CNR:

We know that Jiangsu province, located by the sea, boasts rivers and lakes. The Grand Canal, a historic shipping route, runs through Yangzhou, and a major foreign trade port thrives in Taicang. My question is how Jiangsu province will leverage these strengths in the next phase of developing its water transportation. Thank you. 

Xu Kunlin:

Thanks, I will answer this question. When looking at a map, we find Jiangsu is the only province in China that is located by the sea and, at the same time, boasts large lakes and rivers. It has unique conditions for waterway transport. Lately, the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Jiangsu provincial government specifically held a meeting with the aim of building Jiangsu as a waterway transport hub. We launched a three-year action plan, starting this year, to build Jiangsu as a waterway transport hub with more distinctive characteristics. We will fully implement the requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to further reduce the cost of logistics in the whole of society. The cost of water transport is relatively low, roughly one-third the cost of train services and one-seventh of road transports. Moreover, it is greener. It is the right time to comprehensively develop water transport in Jiangsu with the emphasis on inland waterways and ports.  

The first is the construction of inland waterways. Jiangsu's total inland waterway mileage has reached 24,000 km, roughly one-fifth of the nation's total. Its total mileage, network density and length of high-grade waterways rank top in the country. We make the construction of Grade II waterways the top priority. Grade III waterways allow the passage of ships with a maximum load capacity of 1,000 tons, and Grade II waterways 2,000 tons. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal runs through Jiangsu from north to south. We will firstly construct the entire Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal into Grade II waterways. We will advance the coordinated development of multi-modal transport such as combining shipping with train services or road transport. We will build a high-grade waterway network featuring "two vertical and five horizontal axes," and the length of Grade II waterways and above is expected to be close to 1,100 km by 2025. Two crisscrossing arteries of Grade II waterways will be formed, with the Yangtze River running west to east and the Grand Canal north to south. And ships with a maximum load capacity of 2,000 tons will be able to pass smoothly through the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal 24 hours a day. When we first started to comprehensively develop water transport in Jiangsu, inland cities such as Huai'an and Suqian have seen benefits. We are able to expand our industrial development from the coastal areas and areas along rivers to the inland regions. A large number of industrial projects have been launched in inland regions. A total of 12 projects with an investment of 10 billion yuan are under construction in Huai'an alone. 

The second is the construction of ports along Yangtze River and inland ports. The Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River assumes more than 70% of the cargo volume of the river's total, which makes these waterways golden waterways and diamond sailing areas in the true sense. As the first port along the Yangtze River, Taicang Port handled 8.04 million TEUs last year, taking a lead among ports along the river for the fourteenth straight year. The previously small river port has become a big hub. We will seize the opportunity of strategy for promoting integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, advance the integrated development of Shanghai Port and Taicang Port and the coordination of Taicang Port with Ningbo Port, in order to increase the number of TEUs handled by Taicang Port to 10 million as soon as possible and promote its transformation from a logistic port to a goods trade port. We will build the port into a major north wing of the Shanghai international shipping center and a demonstration of multi-modal transport in the Yangtze River Delta.  

The third is the construction of coastal ports. Lianyungang Port is the only one in the province boasting a 300,000-ton-class waterway and one of the few in China that has a terminal for 400,000-ton-class ore carriers. We vigorously advanced this port's cooperation with Shanghai Port. In 2023, over 100,000 TEUs were transported by the waterway between Liangyungang Port and Shanghai Port, an increase of almost 50%. Lianyungang Port has cooperated with land ports of seven provinces in central and western China, serving as their outlet to the sea, and a total of 806 trains departed or arrived at the port along the China-Europe Railway Express last year, increasing by 10.7%. We are boosting unmanned operations, digital empowerment and further facilitating customs clearance, constantly reinforcing services and support for central and western China and regions along land bridges. Central Asia places a high value on Lianyungang Port. Last year, when I visited Central Asia and met their leaders, they told me that they had visited Jiangsu province five times and every time they came to Lianyungang. Thanks.

Chen Wenjun:

Because of time limitations, we will now take the last two questions.