Yang Yudong:
Thirdly, the relevant administrations in the country will give full play to the railway enterprises that enjoy certain freedom in fixing prices for some passenger transport services. However, the central government will continue to keep control of the prices of hard seats on ordinary trains in a bid to ensure the affordability of travel for ordinary Chinese. The railway transport enterprises will adjust the ticket prices in view of the changes of markets and regional economic conditions. The adjustments are influenced by two factors: First, people's interests. Train ticket prices should not be increased as to be beyond people's reach, and our primary task is to ensure the benefits of reform and opening up are shared by all the people. Second, market conditions. The prices should be fixed based on the actual conditions of the market as well as the enterprises' own performance because price fluctuations can enable the railway companies to act as market entities, adapting to market and gaining profits. The country is now issuing railway construction bonds while encouraging diverse funding channels, such as the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP).
On July 13 2016, China amended "The Medium-and-Long-Term Railway Development Plan", under which the time span is stipulated as being between 2015 and 2025; there is also a forecast up to 2030. In accordance with "the Plan", the railway operational mileage is expected to reach 175,000 kilometers, with 38,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, by 2025. By 2030, the entire railway length is expected to reach 200,000 kilometers, 45,000 kilometers being high-speed lines.
That's my introduction, thank you.
China Youth Daily:
My question is for Mr. Feng. This year, several civil aviation incidents occurred in our country, which attracted wide attention from the public. What's the current safety level of China's civil aviation? What did the CAAC do for the country's civil aviation security? Thank you.
Feng Zhenglin:
Thanks for your question, which points out the baseline we should hold. This year, the transport turnover, passenger volume, and cargo traffic increased by 12.6 percent, 11 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. With the largest transport turnover increment and the highest growing rate of flight frequency, we ensured that the entire security situation of civil aviation maintained stable and that no flight accident or aviation security accident occurred. We have witnessed 45.96 million hours of safe flight this year. Till now, Chinese civil aviation has guaranteed 14 continuous years of aviation security.
In the past 10 years, Chinese civil aviation has seen millions of flights and the major accident rate of 0.036 was one-twelfth of the world standard during the same period. We can say that China's aviation safety is under control and China has already formed a systematic safety management system, operation, supervision and control system. However, although the situation is general stable, there is still risk and worry. As you mentioned, on May 1 of this year, China Eastern Airlines Sichuan Branch's airplane A319/B-6430, which was flying from Chengdu to Kangding, failed to touch down within the runway at the Kangding Airport. On Oct. 11, when a China Eastern Airlines A320 was about to take off at Shanghai's Hongqiao airport, another jet, an A330, was taxiing across the runway. After the two incidents, we issued the most serious punishment to relevant officials and staff according to law and procedure.
At present, China's civil aviation industry is in a golden era of rapid development, but the contradiction between transport demand and supply quality has become serious. The daily flights of some regions and airspace have already become some of the busiest worldwide. The growth of aviation transport in some regions has already touched the "ceiling" of airspace resource, ground maintenance and human resource. To solve these problems, we should promote supply-side structural reform in the civil aviation industry, take meeting needs as the ultimate target, increase efficient supply, improve safety development and enhance quality of air service.
Following President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang's requirements on civil aviation safety, we will deal with the relations between security and development, security and efficiency, security and normal, security and service. We are building a "zero tolerance" long-term mechanism for comprehensively check and rectification, doing everything possible to improve aviation management, airport, operational control and human resource management. Through our work, we will help the public have a safe flight and journey. Thank you.