The Ministry of Transport issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Planning and Construction of Coastal and Inland Ports and Waterways in the New Era

Recently, the Ministry of Transport issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Planning and Construction of Coastal and Inland Ports and Waterways in the New Era (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The Opinions aims to implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee on redoubling the efforts to build a country with great transport strength and the construction of a modern and high-quality national comprehensive and multidimensional transportation network. It will promote the implementation of the plans for the layout of national ports and waterways, lead the medium- and long-term development of the water transportation industry, and strive to write a new chapter in the acceleration of building a strong water transport nation.

The Opinions focuses on the guidance of planning. With the national plan as the overall framework, China will make every effort to focus on strategic research, layout planning, general planning, and construction tasks. China will strengthen the research on water transportation development policies and major strategic issues, scientifically carry out the layout planning for key regions, provincial-level ports and waterways, and orderly promote the general planning of major ports. In addition, China will deepen the study of medium- and long-term construction tasks for ports and waterways to leave ample space for the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan.

The Opinions clearly outline three key focuses, namely strengthening coastal ports, stabilizing inland waterway construction, and promoting high-quality development. China will focus on supporting the implementation of major national strategies and ensuring the security of key areas, clarify the specific requirements and construction priorities for building world-class port clusters and international hub ports, and emphasize on enhancing the development capacity of coastal ports. In response to the 25,000 kilometers of national high-grade waterway construction target outlined in the national plan, China will redouble efforts to connect and supplement the network, remove key bottlenecks and obstacles, and build an interconnected, comprehensive, and coordinated inland waterway infrastructure network. China will focus on key areas such as the optimization of existing resources, the development of multimodal transport, the coordination of port, industry, and city, as well as the smart and green transformation, and effectively enhance the integrated and high-quality development of water transport.

The Opinions highlights organization and implementation. China will align with the goals and tasks set for 2035 in the national plan, strengthen work responsibilities and progress requirements, enhance project reserves, and deepen preliminary work. China will strengthen financial guarantees, actively expand investment and financing channels for inland waterway transportation, and implement established expenditure responsibilities in accordance with the fiscal authority and expenditure responsibility reform in the transportation sector. China will also deepen the research on innovative investment and financing policies, encourage banks and insurance institutions to increase credit and insurance fund support in accordance with the law and regulations, and strengthen the coordination between government investment and financial credit issuance.