China invests 3.2 trillion yuan in transport

China invested 3.2 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) in transport fixed assets in 2018, according to Chinese Transport Minister Li Xiaopeng.

Li gave an account of China’s progress in transport in 2018 at a press briefing in Beijing. “Last year, we made 3.2 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) fixed investment in transport, among which 800 billion yuan (about 119.76 billion U.S. dollars) went to railway, 2.2 trillion yuan (about 329.3 billion U.S. dollars) to road and waterway, eight billion yuan (about 1.20 billion U.S. dollars) to civil aviation. We built 2,600 kilometers of new high-speed railway and 5,000 kilometers of new highway,” said Li.

In regard to transport structure, Li said “more freight transportation went to rail transport, reporting an increase of 350 million tons of railway freight transport last year.”

With regard to service capability, Li said “the passengers made 17.9 billion trips, and the whole country handled 50.6 billion tons of freight transport in 2018.”

According to Li, “The business environment has been improved with five administrative approvals having been scraped, and 20 other administrative approvals being able to be handled on line.” There are more new driving forces. Last year, the passengers made 17.9 billion trips, the whole country handled 50.6 billion tons of freight transport, and 50.7 billion packages were delivered. We formed more regulations for online car hailing and bike sharing, which are used 20 million times and ten million times respectively every day.”

Li also highlighted the ministry’s future work in 2019 saying, “In 2019, we will continue to focus on high quality development, work on the supply side structural reform, follow the guidelines, consolidate, enhance, upgrade and remove the barriers.”