Speakers:
Yang Chuantang, secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group of the Ministry of Transport, Feng Zhenglin, vice minister of the Ministry of Transport and director of the Civil Aviation Administration, Ma Junsheng, a member of the Leading Party Members' Group of the Ministry of Transport and director of the State Post Bureau, Yang Yudong, vice minister of the Ministry of Transport and director of the National Railway Administration.
Chairperson:
Hu Kaihong, vice director-general of the Press Bureau, State Council Information Office
Date:
Dec. 29, 2016
Chairperson Hu Kaihong:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today's press conference. Today, the State Council Information Office has issued a white paper on the Development of China's Transport. We'll brief you on its contents as well as related information on the development of China's transport. Today we have with us Mr. Yang Chuantang, secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group of the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Feng Zhenglin, vice minister of the Ministry of Transport and director of the Civil Aviation Administration, Mr. Ma Junsheng, a member of the Leading Party Members' Group of the Ministry of Transport and director of the State Post Bureau, and Mr. Yang Yudong, vice minister of the Ministry of Transport and director of the National Railway Administration. I'm Hu Kaihong, spokesperson of the State Council Information Office. First, please allow me to briefly introduce the background of this white paper.
This is the first time for the Chinese government to issue a white paper on the development of the national transport system. The document systematically introduces the course of development, the overall situation at present and a blueprint for the future. With a total of about 10,000 Chinese words, the white paper is available in several languages including Chinese, English, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Arabic. The Chinese and English versions have already been issued by the People's Publishing House and Foreign Languages Press respectively. Now, I give the floor to Mr. Yang.
Yang Chuantang:
Thank you very much for your long-standing interest in and support for China's transport development.
As a basic and pioneering service industry, transportation plays an important role in meeting the people's travel needs and in the country's socioeconomic development. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, transportation has been greatly transformed and has contributed much to economic growth and people's safe movement. The white paper aims to give an objective picture of China's transport development and introduce its future development goals so that the international community can gain better understanding of China's situation and offer more support. I will now introduce the contents of the white paper in the following five aspects.
First, the Whiter Paper gives a brief review of the development of China's transportation since the People's Republic of China was established in 1949. The gap between the country's transportation and the world's top-level transportation is quickly narrowing. In some fields, China's transportation has even taken the lead.
Second, the White Paper fully shows the status quo of the country's construction of a comprehensive transportation system. As of the end of 2015, a multi-tier railway network had taken its initial shape. China has the world's second longest railway mileage racking up 121,000 kilometers and the world's longest high-speed railway link racking up 19,000 kilometers. The high-speed railway has become a new name card of Invented-in-China, Made-in-China and Go-Globally. China has built an expansive highway network. It has the world's longest expressway distance of 124,000 kilometers and nearly 4 million kilometers of rural highways reaching 37,684 towns and 634,390 villages, with the access rate standing at 99.9% and 99.8% respectively. An inter-connected waterway network has also taken shape. Coastal ports are advanced . The inland waterway navigation mileage stands at 127,000 kilometers, ranking first in the world. There are 31,300 quay berths for production, of which 2,221 berths are above the ten-thousand-ton level. The civil airport system has been basically formed with 210 civil aviation airports in the country. Civil aviation runs at a higher security level. The post service is available in towns and villages throughout the country. China has the biggest express deliveries per year. The oil and gas pipeline network has preliminarily taken shape.