On December 16, 2021 China Maritime Day Forum: Seminar on High Quality Development of Inland Navigation with the theme of “Discussing the High Quality Development of Inland Navigation and Realizing the Dream of Building China into a Country with Strong Transportation Network” began in Wuhan. Yan Xiaobo, secretary general of China Institute of Navigation (CIN), Qiu Jianhua, deputy director of the Changjiang River Administration of Navigational Affairs of the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and other guests attended the forum, while Yi Jiyong, deputy director general of Water Transit Authority of the MOT and Zhao Jin, deputy director-general of the Department of Transportation of Yunnan province, and other guests attended the meeting online.
Yan Xiaobo pointed out in his speech that by the end of 2020, China's inland water mileage had reached 127,700 kilometres, of which 67,300 kilometres were graded fairway, accounting for 52.7% of the total mileage. Besides, there had been 454 berths of ten-thousand-tonnage and above in inland ports. The number of inland vessels with a net deadweight cargo tonnage of about 137 million tons was 115,000, and there were more than 908,000 registered crew members in inland water ships. In 2020, the freight volume of inland water was 3.815 billion tons, the freight turnover was 1593.754 billion ton-km, and the throughput of inland port was 5.070 billion tons. China has already been a veritable great power in shipping, and inland navigation has made special contributions to the economic and social development of China. He said that inland navigation, as an important part of the comprehensive transport system, plays a fundamental, leading and service role in economic and social development, and strongly supports the coordinated development of regions and the optimization of the spatial layout of China. Promoting the high-quality development of inland navigation is an important part of building China into a country with strong transportation and shipping.
Qiu Jianhua said Changjiang River Administration of Navigational Affairs has recently conducted extensive research, thinking and discussion on promoting the high-quality development of Yangtze River shipping. This Administration also made a list of 40 tasks, of which 28 tasks were summarized as "four aspects of development", and the other 12 comprehensive tasks “five guarantees”. Thus, the general guideline of promoting the high quality development of Yangtze River shipping by Changjiang River Administration of Navigational Affairs was initially formed, that is "one theme, four aspects of development and five guarantees". The "one theme" is to promote the high-quality development of Yangtze River shipping, the "four aspects of development" is to promote the safe, green, coordinated and innovative development of Yangtze River shipping, the "five guarantees" refer to the aspects in politics, organization, rule of law, talent and finance.
In the keynote speech, Yan Xinping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Tang Guanjun, member of Ministerial Policy Advisory Committee of Hubei Provincial Government, and Yi Jiyong, deputy director-general of the Water Transit Authority of MOT, respectively delivered speeches on "Thinking About the Construction of a New Generation of Inland River Shipping System", "Comprehensively Promoting the High-quality Development of Yangtze River Shipping to Speed up the Construction of a Strong Transportation Country", "Development Strategies and Policies of Inland Navigation in China", and so on.
Meanwhile, Wang Canqiang, Party Member and Team Leader of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Pearl River Administration of Navigational Affairs, Zhu Jianhua, vice president of Waterborne Transport Research Institute of MOT, Wang Jianbin, deputy director of the Changjiang Waterway Bureau, Fang Baoli, chairman of Changjiang Hui Technology Co., Ltd, Zhang Ya, GM Assistant of China Yangtze Shipping Group, Bao Jianyi, vice general manager of Hubei Port Group Silk Road Company, and Geng Xiongfei, director of Waterborne Transport Research Institute of MOT, delivered keynote speeches at the meeting. Zhao Jin, deputy director of the Department of Transport of Yunnan province, Xu Guoyi, director of the Office of the Shanghai Combined Port Management Committee, Sun Yuqing, president of Dalian Maritime University, and Zhang Huaqin, president of the Tianjin Research Institute for Water Transport Engineering of the Ministry of Transport, delivered their speeches online. Focusing on promoting the construction of a strong transportation country, the participants, on behalf of shipping, port, manufacturing, technology and regulatory departments and enterprises, gave speeches and exchanged views on development strategies and priorities, which is innovative, intelligent, green and safe.
The forum was organized by the Professional Committee for High-quality Development of Inland Water of CIN and the Changjiang River Administration of Navigational Affairs, the Pearl River Administration of Navigational Affairs and the Waterborne Transport Research Institute of MOT.