Uchikawa
Editor's note
Inland waterway shipping is an important channel to promote domestic circulation and the main force of long-distance transportation of domestic bulk goods. For many years, the proportion of inland waterway shipping in the mainland's transportation structure is still low. The Ministry of Transport recently issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Planning and Construction of Coastal and Inland Ports and Waterways in the New Era", during which it not only made it clear that it was necessary to "accelerate the construction of a world-class port group", but also put forward the task requirements of "building a main channel of water transport across the east and west, radiating north and south", showing the profound connotation of striving to write a new chapter in accelerating the construction of a transportation power. This issue of Economic Geography focuses on inland waterway shipping, so stay tuned when the waves are progressing.
Guanlan
■China Economic Times reporter Tong Tong
The river breeze is strong, and the tide is majestic. The grand scene of shipping with hundreds of ships competing for the current and thousands of sails competing for sails once left a profound imprint on people running through the north and south and across the east and west in the long history of the mainland. Nowadays, inland waterway shipping, as one of the important channels to promote domestic circulation, has been given an important supporting role and strategic position in promoting regional economic development.
The Ministry of Transport recently 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"), which requires the optimization of the main trunk channels, the orderly promotion of the Yangtze River trunk line, the Xijiang shipping trunk line, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, the Huai River main stream and other trunk waterways to expand and upgrade, and build a main water transport channel that runs through the east and west and radiates the north and south.
Experts interviewed by the China Economic Times believe that inland waterway shipping has the advantages of large capacity, low cost and low energy consumption, and under the strategic deployment of the national transportation power, the development potential of inland waterway shipping is huge, and it is ushering in a key opportunity period for green and high-quality development.
01
Breaking through the blocking points is the key to ensuring the connection of water transportation
In recent years, with the steady improvement of the mainland's infrastructure level, inland transportation, which is dominated by the construction of national hubs such as railways, highways, and aviation, has played an absolutely important role in the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network of mainland countries. However, the proportion of water transport, especially inland waterway shipping, in the mainland's transportation structure is still low. This is extremely incommensurate with the fact that the mainland has the most developed inland waterway network in the world.
This situation, on the one hand, is influenced by the increasing improvement of other modes of transportation; On the other hand, it is closely related to the existence of many blockages in the inland waterway shipping system of the mainland.
Once this shortcoming exists, it is bound to run counter to the goal of "by 2035, a modern and high-quality national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network that is convenient, smooth, cost-effective, green intensive, intelligent, advanced, safe and reliable" proposed in the "National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline".
To this end, it is imperative to ensure a vertically and horizontally connected and efficient inland waterway shipping network. The "Opinions" put the important task of "building the main water transport channel that runs through the east and west and radiates the north and south" on the "expansion and upgrading of the Yangtze River trunk line, the Xijiang shipping trunk line, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, the Huai River main stream and other trunk waterways".
"Inland waterway shipping has obvious advantages as transportation logistics and transportation, not only with large transportation capacity, but also with lower cost and energy consumption. The mainland has a unique advantage in developing inland waterway shipping. Zhang Yifeng, a researcher at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the China Economic Times that the mainland is one of the countries with the most rivers in the world, among which, according to the circular form of river runoff, not only has an outflow river that flows into the ocean, but also an inland river that does not communicate with the ocean, each of which shoulders the functional attributes of shipping to a certain extent.
Zhang Yifeng believes that according to the natural channel characteristics of different rivers, they also face different problems to be solved. In the case of the Yangtze River shipping system, which has been accumulated for decades, it faces different specific problems in its upstream, middle and lower reaches.
In this regard, the "Opinions" give specific opinions and requirements. According to the "Opinions", the Yangtze River trunk line should focus on upgrading the upstream level, opening up the bottleneck in the middle reach, optimizing the downstream channel, accelerating the preliminary work and construction of the new Three Gorges water transport channel, and rationally developing and utilizing the Yangtze River estuary waterway.
The Xijiang shipping trunk line will focus on speeding up the extension of the first-class waterway to Nanning, steadily promoting the expansion of ship locks, and optimizing the navigation conditions of the sea channel.
The main stream of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and the Huai River will focus on promoting the expansion of ship locks and the improvement of waterways.
"Targeted policies are an inevitable measure to ensure the high-quality development of inland waterway shipping and improve the construction of a modern transportation infrastructure system." Zhang Yifeng said.
In this regard, the blocking points of inter-provincial and national high-grade waterways have been included in the priority sequence. The "Opinions" require that in accordance with the principle of "standard convergence and timing coordination", the implementation of the inter-provincial national high-grade waterway bottleneck section construction promotion plan, in view of outstanding problems, promote the establishment of a ministerial guidance, inter-provincial joint construction of the promotion mechanism, and effectively open up the blocking points.
02
Inland waterway shipping provides new impetus for multimodal transport
As a major inland waterway shipping country, combined with the strategic requirements of a transportation power, how the mainland can strengthen innovation in inland waterway shipping technology, so as to lead the development of inland waterway shipping technology in the world, and release the multimodal kinetic energy by injecting innovation power, has attracted attention from all walks of life.
Yan Xinping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chief professor of Wuhan University of Technology, and technical expert in waterway transportation engineering, has publicly pointed out that at present, although the inland waterway shipping in the mainland is developing rapidly, the problem of imbalance, inadequacy and mismatch is still prominent, and it is urgent to change the operation mode of the crew, promote the transformation and upgrading of the shipping industry, and strengthen the construction of the inland waterway shipping system.
Yan Xinping believes that the new generation of shipping system should reflect the use of artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things, new energy and other high-tech applications, at the same time, the organization and operation mode of transport ships should also realize the ship operation mode of "shore-based driving control, supplemented by ship-end duty".
This is the key to stimulating the vitality of inland waterway shipping and bringing new momentum to multimodal transport.
"The comprehensive and three-dimensional transportation mode selection can provide the most suitable choice for the transportation needs of different large-scale commodities." Wang Xiaodong, a professor at the Business School of Chinese University, said in an interview with a reporter from the China Economic Times that multimodal transport is an important part of improving transportation efficiency, reducing transportation costs and creating a better circulation system. Among them, the improvement of more convenient water transportation is a great convenience for some commodities that need to be transported on a large scale, such as agricultural products or industrial raw materials.
The "Opinions" put forward to speed up the development of multimodal transport. Focusing on iron-water combined transport and river-sea combined transport, we will strengthen transportation organization, information sharing, and rule convergence, and vigorously develop a multimodal transport system with "one single system" and "one box system" as important carriers. Guide and encourage port and shipping enterprises to develop high-quality, professional, full-chain customized logistics services, actively develop whole-process logistics, supply chain management, and develop professional logistics such as cold chain, commodity automobiles, and chemicals.
In Wang Xiaodong's view, once the trunk channel can be expanded and upgraded, the transportation and sea passages in different regions will be more abundant, and the circulation efficiency will be improved. For example, for a long time, many provinces in the central and western provinces have only the Yangtze River channel to the East China Sea transportation, if through the Xijiang River and other trunk channels, strengthen the export path to the ASEAN region, for the inland river transportation along the route and even foreign trade import and export, will stimulate twice the result with half the effort.
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Chief Producer丨Wang Hui and Che Haigang
Producer丨Li Piguang, Wang Yu, Liu Weimin
Editor-in-Chief丨Mao Jinghui Editor丨Chen Shuhan