liu wei answers two hot issues at "minister channel"

　　On March 9, the second "Minister's Passage" of the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress was held in the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Minister Liu Wei answered reporters' questions on the construction of China's comprehensive transportation system and issues related to transportation services ensuring people's livelihood during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.

　　Regarding the construction of the comprehensive transportation system during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period

　　Xinhua News Agency Reporter: One of the important topics of this year's National People's Congress is to review the draft outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan". Transportation is an important field for economic and social development. What major measures will be taken for the construction of China's comprehensive transportation system during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period? Thank you.

　　Answer

　　Liu Wei:

　　Thank you for your question. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, under the strong leadership of the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China's comprehensive transportation system construction has made breakthrough progress, and the construction of a strong transportation nation has taken solid steps. The most prominent aspects are threefold:

　　First, in terms of infrastructure. These five years have seen the highest investment and fastest network construction, with the main framework completion rate of the "6 Axes, 7 Corridors, 8 Channels" national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network exceeding 90%.

　　Second, in terms of transportation services. Major indicators for passenger, freight, and postal services remain at the forefront globally. For example, port container throughput accounts for about one-third of the global total, and last year's express delivery volume was approximately 200 billion pieces, ranking first globally for 12 consecutive years.

　　Third, in terms of technology and equipment. The level of modernization has significantly improved. For example, the domestically produced C919 large aircraft has safely carried over 4 million passengers, and automated terminals lead the world in scale and technological level.

　　Regarding transportation development during the "15th Five-Year Plan", the "Outline" reviewed at this year's National People's Congress specifically deploys the major task of improving the modern comprehensive transportation system and clearly defines six major projects for the construction of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network in the form of a special column. The most important measure for promoting implementation is to focus on "One Network, Four Transformations".

　　"One Network" refers to accelerating the construction of a modern, high-quality national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network. Specifically, on one hand, we insist on optimizing increments, promoting the main framework completion rate from 90% to over 95%; on the other hand, we insist on improving stock quality, promoting updates and intelligent digital transformation for transportation infrastructure with long service times, low construction standards, and poor safety resilience.

　　"Four Transformations" emphasizes integration, safety enhancement, digital intelligence upgrade, and green transformation. First, emphasize integration, focusing on strengthening deep integration across regions, modes, and fields. For example, in terms of travel, we will implement the metropolitan area intercity commuting efficiency improvement project to significantly increase the proportion of the population with one-hour commuting conditions in metropolitan areas nationwide. In logistics, we will implement a multimodal transport breakthrough action to eliminate bottlenecks and significantly improve the one-hour transfer rate for multimodal transport.

　　Second, emphasize safety enhancement. The focus is on addressing safety resilience shortcomings and improving the intrinsic safety level of transportation. For example, in recent years, over 120,000 kilometers of roads have been damaged by water annually in China. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we will continue to implement the road safety resilience enhancement project and carry out road bridge safety operation improvement actions to achieve dynamic clearance of dangerous bridges across the road network.

　　Third, emphasize digital intelligence upgrade. The focus is on deeply implementing the "Artificial Intelligence+" action and vigorously developing smart transportation. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we will comprehensively promote the large-scale application of typical scenarios such as "Artificial Intelligence+ Road Inspection" and vigorously promote the development of smart roads, smart ports, and intelligent shipping.

　　Fourth, emphasize green transformation. As everyone knows, transportation is a key area for carbon emissions, accounting for about 10% of global carbon emissions. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we will use carbon peaking and carbon neutrality as a guide to promote the construction of zero-carbon transportation corridors and stations and vigorously promote the application of new energy vehicles and ships and other clean energy transportation equipment.

　　Next, we will earnestly implement the deployment of the "15th Five-Year Plan" "Outline", accelerate the preparation of the "15th Five-Year Plan" transportation plan, and promote the implementation of various key tasks. Thank you.

　　Regarding transportation services ensuring people's livelihood

　　Sichuan Radio and Television Station Sichuan Observation Reporter: Transportation is an important field for ensuring people's livelihood. What measures will the Ministry of Transport take this year to ensure people's livelihood? Thank you.

　　Answer

　　Liu Wei:

　　Thank you for your question. Transportation services are closely related to the production and life of the people. Here is a set of data: From cross-regional travel data, about 30 million small passenger cars travel on highways nationwide every day, about 10 million people take high-speed trains, and about 2 million people travel by civil aviation. From urban internal travel data, about 100 million people take subway rail transit every day nationwide, 100 million people take public buses and trams, and another 100 million people commute by taxi or ride-hailing services. From express delivery data, about 550 million express parcels are collected nationwide every day, with an average of 3 parcels per person per week. These data are common situations, fully illustrating the important role of transportation in ensuring people's livelihood.

　　We always remember the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, adhere to the principle of prioritizing people's livelihood, and focus on the urgent and difficult issues of the people. This year, we will focus on three aspects to accomplish transportation tasks for the people.

　　First, focusing on travel, we will continue to work hard to ensure people's travel. Service travel is an important responsibility and mission of our transportation department. This year, in our work arrangements, we emphasize "Three Focuses": First, focus on creating service brands. To make travel more comfortable, we actively cultivate service brands such as silver trains, direct buses to scenic spots, and domestic aviation express lines, and comprehensively improve the layout and construction of micro-car rental networks. Second, focus on promoting passenger intermodal transportation. To make travel more convenient, we leverage the advantages of comprehensive transportation and innovate service models such as air-rail intermodal transportation and land-air intermodal transportation, promoting "one-time ticket purchase, one-time payment, one-ticket access". Third, focus on ensuring holiday travel. Especially ensuring service guarantees for large passenger flows during major holidays. As everyone knows, during the three long holidays of Spring Festival, May Day, and National Day, cross-regional personnel flow is about twice the usual amount. For example, this year's sixth day of the lunar new year saw cross-regional personnel flow reach 380 million, with highway traffic exceeding 71 million, both setting historical records. In response, we adhere to safety first and people-oriented principles, strengthen major risk assessments, focus on solving difficult and blocked points, and strive to make travel safer and smoother.

　　Second, focusing on "small cuts", we will continue to work hard to improve the service quality of highway service areas. Currently, China has built nearly 4,200 pairs of highway service areas, with an average of about 50 kilometers per pair. This year, we focus on "small cuts" and implement the highway service area quality improvement action. First, further improve charging service facilities. Currently, the coverage rate of charging facilities in service areas nationwide has reached 98.8%. This year, the focus is on enhancing high-power charging capacity to alleviate the difficulties of "finding piles" and "long queues". Second, further improve elderly service facilities. This year, the focus is on promoting the elderly-friendly transformation of service area toilets, increasing the proportion of seated toilets to over 20% to solve the inconvenience of elderly people using toilets. Third, further improve truck driver service facilities. Currently, China has built over 1,000 standardized "Driver's Homes" in service areas, providing drivers with five free basic services: parking and resting, meal heating, hot water supply, showering, and laundry. This year, we will further expand the coverage of "Driver's Homes" so that more drivers can eat hot meals, drink hot water, and take hot showers on the road.

　　Third, focusing on rural areas, we will continue to work hard to serve the comprehensive revitalization of villages. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the construction of "Four Good Rural Roads". Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has invested over 5.5 trillion yuan, building over 4.7 million kilometers of rural roads, benefiting over 500 million farmers. Rural roads have become the road to prosperity, happiness, connection, and revitalization at the doorstep of the people. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we will continue to promote the high-quality development of "Four Good Rural Roads" as a major task, paying more attention to the maintenance and operation of rural roads and vigorously promoting the integrated development of rural passenger, freight, and postal services. Thank you.