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Speech by Mr. Ju Chengzhi
Mr Chairman, Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: First of all, please allow me, on behalf of the Ministry of Communications of the People’s Republic of China, to express our sincere thanks to the host country and the International Road Transport Union (IRU) for inviting the Chinese delegation here to attend the 27th IRU World Congress. We feel greatly delighted to be provided with the opportunity to conduct discussions and exchange views with delegates and experts from other countries. Following the speedy advances of science and technology and the fast development in the tendency of economic globalization, the international economic and technological exchange and co-operation, is playing a more and more important role in economic development of every country in the world. The development of economic and technological exchange and co-operation requires that transport sectors of different countries should enhance their co-operation and exchange. Our gathering here today is well tuned in with the trends and situation of the world development and will surely contribute to promoting the connection, communication and mutual understanding between the transport sectors of different countries. Acting as a bridge connecting road transport sectors of different countries in the world, IRU has made its due contributions to promoting the co-operation and exchange between road transport fields. China Road Transport Association is now positively considering to become a member of IRU so that it will, on the basis of IRU Constitution and the Rules of Procedure, expand its exchanges and promote understanding with the colleagues of different countries to make concerted efforts to promote the development of world transport. On this occasion, I would like to make a brief introduction to the development of road transport in China with the purpose of promoting understanding and illustrating the plans and the pragmatic measures taken by the Ministry of Communications of China centred on the speech topic requested by the Congress "The Silk Road to Mobility—Uniting Europe and the Pacific 2000+". During the last two decades of the 20th century, due to China’s policy of Reform and Opening to the outside world, China has enjoyed a comparatively fast annual economic growth rate of more than 9%. The living standards of the people increased remarkably and great changes have taken place in the society. During that period, the economy and trade of both China and the rest of the world developed rapidly. The total volume of China’s import and export reached USD 360.6 billion, ranked world’s number nine according to the statistics of World Trade Organisation (WTO). If China enters WTO this year, China will adopt a more open policy opening the domestic market and allowing more foreign enterprises and investors to invest in China while further expanding foreign trade. By the end of 1999, nearly 1,000 Sino-foreign funded road transport joint ventures had been approved and established. On the basis of equality and mutual benefit, more foreign enterprises are welcome to invest in China’s road transport. Transport industry is an important basic industry in the national economy of China and has played an important role in China’s economic development. During the past three decades from the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to the adoption of China’s policy of Reform and Opening to the outside world in 1978, China has been in the course of realising its industrialization. At that time, the goods of priority to be transported were mainly primary products like iron and steel and mineral products, and energy materials like coal and oil. China is a geographically vast country with long travelling distance. Therefore, emphasis used to be placed in developing railway and water transport. By the end of 1978, China’s 90% of the goods turnover and 70% of the passengers had been carried by railway transport and water transport, and the road transport had also scored great achievements. Especially during the past two decades after the adoption of the Reform and Opening policy, the Chinese Government has taken lots of important measures to actively improve the road network and speed up the road transport development. In recent years, great amount of money has been invested in road infrastructure construction. The investment reached RMB120 billion in 1997 and that surpassed RMB200 billion in the two consecutive years of 1998 and 1999. The investment will come to a new high this year. Rapid development has been achieved in terms of China’s road construction, technology and road transport management. By the end of 1999, the total mileage of road opened to public traffic in China had reached 1.336 million kilometers, around 93% of which are of bituminous and concrete pavement. There had been 220,000 road bridges constructed with a total length of 7.45 million meters. The economic takeoff calls for the building of expressways in China. It has been only 10 years since the opening to the public traffic of China's first expressway in October 1988. However, by the end of 1999, the total length of expressways in China had soared to 11,000 kilometers making China one of the leading countries in this regard in the world. At present, initial shape has taken in China’s road network radiating from economic centres to neighbouring areas and extending to the vast rural areas with the capital city of Beijing, the municipalities directly under the central government and provincial capitals as centres in the network. Currently, all the counties, 99% of townships and 87% of villages are connected with roads. The road transport becomes a most important mode of transport with widest coverage and great influence on the regional economic development and on the living conditions of the public. In order to keep pace with the national economic growth, the Chinese Government has formulated the development principles and long-term plan targets for road construction. Specifically, during the period from 1990 to 2010, 12 trunk national road lines, 5 east-west and 7 north-south, will be built with a total length of about 35,000 kilometers connecting important cities, industrial centres, transport hubs and major land ports. Before 2002, our efforts will be focused on the construction of 2 north-south road lines, 2 east-west road lines and 3 significant sections of roads totaling 17,000 kilometers. At present, this programme is in the process of smooth implementation. As China's economy develops, the industrial structure and the product structure have undergone great changes. The percentage of traditional primary products declines while the manufactured goods and high value-added products demand increased transport capability as well as increased transport quality, speed and flexibility. Compliant with the social transport demand, road transport has developed at a high speed. At the same time, the improvement of road infrastructure brings about the rapid increase of the overall technology of road transport and enhances the competitiveness of road transport compared with other modes of transport. Thus, the roles and functions played by road transport changed from lesser to all-important. In 1998, the number of vehicles registered for civil purposes in the whole country reached 13.26 million including 200 thousand special-purpose vehicles for carrying containers, reefers and large general cargoes the loading capacity of which approached one thousand tons. The number of registered vehicles in the whole country in 1978 was only 1.36 million. At present, the number of newly increased vehicles each year reaches more than one million. In 1998, the number of road transport operators in the whole country added up to 3.613 million with 12.95 million employees, bringing about an annual volume of passengers transported, passenger turnover, goods transported and goods turnover reaching 12.5 billion person times, 614.5 billion person kilometres, 9.9 billion tons and 597.3 billion ton kilometres respectively. During the last two decades from 1978 to 1998, the annual growth rates of passenger transported, goods transported, passenger turnover, and goods turnover approximated 11.2%, 4.8%, 12.9% and 10.4% respectively, higher than those of the railway transport and water transport. Compared with those of 1978, the percentages of transport volume carried by road over the total volume of transport carried by the five modes of transport in 1998 increased up to 91.3% from 58.7% in terms of passengers transported, 56.3% from 29.9% in terms of passenger turnover, 77.2% from 69.4% in terms of goods transported and 14.5% from 6.3% in terms of goods turnover. The road transport became a most important mode of transport having further consolidated the basic role in the comprehensive transport system. Road transport not only carries the most of the transported goods but also brings about high industrial value, offers plenty of employment opportunities and has made its due contributions to both economic development and social stability in China. In the 21st century, China will be undergoing a process of changing from industrialization to modernization. With the further improvement of economic development and transforming of the industrial structure, the percentage of transport volume by road transport will be gradually increased among the total transport volume. Road transport will no longer be responsible for only medium and short distance transport but will show its advantages in long distance transport. Expressways will be an important part of the transport system and its role played in social and economic development will be more and more important. Following the above introduction, now I would like to brief to you what the Chinese transport sector's idea and efforts addressing the "The Silk Road to Mobility-Uniting Europe and the Pacific 2000+". As it is known to all, China has a long history of economic, cultural and trade links with the Central Asian countries, which can be traced back to the Silk Road Era more than 2000 years ago. The ancient Silk Road used to play a historically significant role in promoting the exchange and development in economy, trade and culture between Asian and European countries. In recent years, the Chinese leaders expressed the aspiration that China will actively collaborates with countries concerned to revitalize the Silk Road. Following the national policies and programmes, China’s transport sector has taken many pragmatic measures to develop road transport between China and the Central and Western Asian countries and has made great positive achievements. Firstly, in order to enhance the regional economic and trade co-operation with the neighbouring countries and to promote the friendly exchange with the people therein, the Chinese Government has, through friendly consultations on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, concluded a series of bilateral agreements on road transport with 10 neighboring countries, including those in the Central Asia which border China. Based on the bilateral road transport agreements and in line with the need for developing regional economy, China has undertaken multilateral cross-border road transport and, in an active manner, provided its nearby landlocked neighbors with gateways to seas through the Chinese territory. By the end of 1998, China had opened over one hundred road transport routes to its neighbours, and the number of the Class I land ports open to foreign countries had reached 58. We believe that the conclusion and implementation of these bilateral and multi-lateral agreements are the pragmatic and fruitful work conducted by China to promote the opening of the Silk Road. Secondly, since last year, the Chinese Government has decided to quicken the step of developing the western part of its territory and listed road construction as an important measure to develop the western part. On the basis of the original construction programme of 12 national trunk road system composed of 5 south-north and 7 east-west roads, 8 more trunk roads will be designed to offer the western part transport services to be connected with the central and eastern parts, the southern and northern parts and the neighbouring countries. At the same time, more money will be invested in the construction of railways in the western part. The development of the western part of China will greatly promote the step of revitalizing the Silk Road. In addition, the mileage of road transport route connecting Europe and Pacific in Chinese territory adds up to more than 4,400 kilometres between Khorgos and Lianyungang which lies in the central part of China running from west to east. This is the national trunk road that we are quickening our paces to construct and planning to complete in 2002 with the standards of high-class road. In addition, the railway that extends to Kashi, in southern Xinjiang, has also been constructed and opened to traffic. These measures satisfy the need to develop national economy and lay solid foundation for the revitalization of the Silk Road. The countries along the Silk Road have maintained a traditionally friendly relationship of economic and trade co-operation, which enjoys a broad prospect for development and also faces a historic opportunity. It has been a long-standing aspiration shared by these countries to develop road transport among them. It goes without saying that, thanks to the geographical neighborhood, the complementary economy and the historically far-reaching links among the countries along the Silk Road, the cooperation in economy, trade and transport and the exchange of culture and people will move forward at an ever quicker pace and on a larger scale. We sincerely hope to further develop the road transport between the Central and Western Asian countries along the Silk Road, promote the economic, trade and personnel exchange and enhance the economic development in this region. The revitalization of the Silk Road will be an important step of building the economic, quick and convenient transport route that connects Europe and the Pacific. Let’s take our due actions and join our efforts to revitalize the Silk Road for the early opening of the transport route that connects Europe and the Pacific.
Wish the 27th IRU World Congress every success! |
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