The 14^th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Modern Logistics (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) issued by The General Office of the State Council is problem-oriented, which further highlights the position of port and shipping logistics industry as an important part and "Vanguard" of modern logistics.

As the foundation of the national economy, the port and shipping logistics industry is not only an important part of modern logistics, the main force of the opening up of transportation channels, but also the pioneer of logistics modernization, and the main driving force of innovation in the field of logistics. In the Plan, it also shows such characteristics.

"The Plan has three main features, which can be summarized as' three insists’: firstly, we insist on being problem-oriented; secondly, we insist on being innovation-driven, and thirdly, we insist on systematic progress." Said by Zhang Jiangbo, Deputy Director General of the Department of Economic and Trade of National Development and Reform Commission.

Strong inside and outside; expand channels; strengthen the foundation of international logistics

"This is a very important development plan in the field of modern logistics, which is of great significance to speed up the establishment of a modern logistics system and promote high-quality economic development." said by Meng Wei, spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission, at an earlier press conference.

According to the Plan, it is proposed to rely on major logistics facilities such as national logistics hub and national backbone cold chain logistics base to gather logistics factor resources, drive the aggregation and integration of related industrial factor resources, build an industrial cluster with regional agglomeration and radiation ability, and develop and expand the logistics hub economy. On the other hand, it is proposed to improve the logistics infrastructure support and service capacity along the "Four Horizontal and Five Vertical Domestic Logistics Channels, Coastal and Border Logistics Corridors and 10 International Logistics Channels" logistics corridor, optimize the industrial layout and division of labor cooperation system along the channel, build an economic and industrial corridor based on the logistics corridor, cultivate and develop the logistics channel economy, and inject new vitality into regional economic growth.

The Plan has pointed out the problems of the current stock logistics infrastructure network in our country, which has been particularly prominent that the overall existence of the problem of "strong in the east and weak in the west, strong in the city and weak in the countryside, and strong in the domestic and weak in the international". Therefore, the Plan puts forward goals such as "accelerating the development of international logistics network". For the port and shipping logistics industry, this not only conforms to the logic of development, but also further requires the port and shipping logistics enterprises to serve the construction of a new pattern of domestic and international double circulation.

Zhang Dawei, Deputy Director General of the comprehensive Planning Department of the Ministry of Transport, said, "In recent years, China's international logistics has developed rapidly. At present, China-Europe freight trains reach 196 cities in about 24 countries in Europe. The scope of our country's international road transport cooperation has expanded to 19 countries, the international waterway transport routes have covered more than 100 countries and regions, and the aviation network has covered more than 60 countries and regions. The construction of a three-dimensional, all-dimensional and multi-level Belt and Road transport connectivity network has been accelerated, which effectively serves the domestic and international double cycle.”

To a certain extent, the data shows the achievements of the construction of major international channels, and how to strengthen the next step is more concerned.

Zhang Dawei introduced that in the next step, the Ministry of Transport will work with relevant departments to strengthen the development of international logistics network from four aspects.

First, we will promote "hard connectivity" of infrastructure. We will strengthen the construction of major international logistics channels along Coastal and Border Logistics Corridors and 10 International Logistics Channels, and actively promote international infrastructure connectivity with neighboring countries. We will strengthen our ability to serve the diversified international logistics channels under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Second, we will further smooth international transport. We will speed up the construction of China-Europe freight train assembly centers, improve the international shipping network, improve the efficiency of China-South Korea land-sea intermodal transportation, and promote the sound development of China-Europe land-sea Express. We will expand intercontinental air networks in Europe, North America and Oceania, steadily expand the scope of implementation of the agreement on international road transport facilitation, encourage airlines to build international cargo routes and improve the layout of international delivery service networks.

Third, we will ensure the security of international logistics supply chains. We will deepen pilot projects in the international logistics supply chain, accelerate the cultivation and growth of internationally competitive modern logistics enterprises, and strengthen coordination and management to ensure the safety of transportation of energy, grain, minerals and other important materials.

Fourth, we will promote "soft connectivity" of systems and rules. We will be deeply involved in the formulation of international standard rules, advance bilateral and multilateral transport cooperation, improve international logistics supply chain information services, and better connect logistics information with foreign trade enterprises.

Among them, many aspects involve the development of water transport, which also shows that water transport is the basic guarantee of the security of the international logistics supply chain to a certain extent.

Reduce costs; stabilize trade port; fees in the field of port and shipping is the focus

While promoting the "domestic and international strength", the Plan continues the important starting point of the development of the logistics industry in recent years that is to reduce social logistics costs and narrow the gap with major economies.

From the perspective of the National Development and Reform Commission, it has taken the lead in reporting to the State Council for the issuance of a series of comprehensive policy documents in recent years, and introduced a series of measures in such aspects as deepening the reform of "streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services", intensifying tax and fee reductions, strengthening the construction of key areas and weak links, promoting standardized and intelligent logistics informatization, deepening industrial integration and information connectivity, etc. We have basically constructed a policy framework system to improve the quality, efficiency and cost of logistics. Among them, the clearing and rectification of the fees in the field of port and shipping is the focus.

In March 2022, the Ministry of Transport and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the Notice on the Reduction of Port Charges and Other Related Matters, which abolished the government pricing of port facility security fee and included it in the port operation contract fee as a sub-item. The charge standard of the sub-item shall not be higher than the original charge standard. Among them, the pilotage fee standard of 18 coastal ports sailing international routes has be reduced in a classified and directional manner. Shenzhen Port, Meizhou Bay Port, Rizhao Port and Jinzhou Port have reduced pilotage fee base rate by 15%, and 14 ports such as Shanghai Port, Ningbo Zhoushan Port, Dalian Port, Tangshan Port and Qingdao Port reduced pilotage fee base rate by 10%. According to the calculation, the cost reduction of the above coastal port pilotage agencies is about 320 million Yuan per year.

At the same time, the tugboat fee policy has be improved, and Chinese ships of 150 meters or less entering and leaving the ports of the Yangtze River have be allowed to decide whether to use tugboats according to the actual situation on the premise of ensuring safety. We have further standardized the conduct of port charges, urged the implementation of the list of service charges for port operation and the publicity system, strengthened the supervision of the port operation market, and worked with relevant departments to investigate and deal with violations in accordance with the law.

In August 2022, The State Council issued the Decision on Canceling and Adjusting a Number of Fines, canceling and adjusting 53 fines set by administrative regulations and departmental rules in the fields of transportation and market supervision. Among them, four fines related to water transportation were cancelled and eight were adjusted.

Statistics show that in 2021, the ratio of total social logistics expenses to GDP was 14.6 percent, down 3.4 percentage points from 2012, narrowing the gap with major economies. The Plan aims to reduce the ratio of total social logistics costs to GDP by about 2 percentage points by 2025 compared with 2020.

Zhang Jiangbo introduced that in the next step, the Plan focuses on increasing policy guidance from three dimensions: First, we will consolidate our achievements in cutting taxes and fees. We will strictly implement the existing policies on reducing taxes and fees in logistics, promote the electronic invoices in the modern logistics sector, and implement preferential tax policies such as halving urban land use tax on land used by logistics companies for bulk commodity storage facilities and halving urban land use tax on the purchase of trailers and vehicles. We will resolutely deal with arbitrary charges, fines and appositions, and deal with the practice of "charging fees without providing services" in accordance with the law. We will overhaul and standardize charges on railways, ports and airports. Second, we will focus more on improving quality and efficiency. We will focus on reducing costs in the whole chain and systematically, and emphasize reducing the level of social logistics costs by improving the quality of logistics development and improving logistics efficiency. On one hand, promote the solution to the bottleneck of cross-transport mode and cross-operation link, expand low-cost, high-efficiency trunk and branch transport-warehouse and distribution integrated logistics service supply; On the other hand, we will further improve the transport structure of goods, and promote in a reasonable and orderly way the use of "road to rail" and "road to waterway" for medium and long distances such as bulk commodities. Third, we will further reduce costs. We will promote the deep integration of logistics and manufacturing industries, promote the coordinated development of enterprises, promote the interconnected development of facilities, and support the integrated development of ecology.

It is worth noting that, as the main force of cost reduction, the Plan emphasizes the adjustment of transportation structure and the innovation to guide the development of smart modern logistics.

In terms of transport restructuring, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport have so far launched four batches of 116 multimodal transport demonstration projects. In 2021, 6.2 million TEUs of container intermodal transportation were completed in the demonstration projects, and 450 intermodal lines were launched.

At the same time, multimodal transport "one single system" has also achieved results. We have increased the proportion of railway freight volume in the total freight volume of China from 7.8% in 2017 to 9.2% in 2021, and increased the proportion of waterway freight volume from 14.1% in 2017 to 15.8% in 2021. From January to November 2022, the combined transportation volume of container railway and water railway in Chinese ports completed 8.056 million TEUs, an increase of 17.6 percent year-on-year. The operation of loading bulk goods into containers for transport at ports nationwide completed 6.433 million TEUs, an increase of 11.9 percent year-on-year.

In the next step, relevant departments will continue to accelerate the transformation of transport development mode, and constantly promote the adjustment of transport structure to achieve new results.

"First, we will further improve the transport structure in key regions. We will focus on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas, as well as the major coal producing areas in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Mongolia, and continue to increase the "road to railway" and "road to waterway" transportation of bulk cargo and containers over medium and long distances. Second, we will accelerate the construction of special railway lines. We will further improve the port centralization, shipping and distribution system, and by 2025, the railway entry rate of major coastal port areas will exceed 70 percent. Third, we will accelerate the innovation of transport organization mode, promote the joint venture companies related to MTR to strengthen joint marketing, and continuously expand the scale of the ' loading bulk goods into containers for transport '." said by Zhang Jiangbo.

In terms of smart logistics, in the field of port and shipping, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we will also increase investment in digital infrastructure construction, such as intelligent equipment on ships and shore, 5G communication, Beidou navigation and other facilities in the port and shipping industry. At the same time, we will increase data collection, analysis and application, enhance the value of data, expand the application scenarios of smart port and navigation, and promote the coverage of automated, unmanned and intelligent equipment.

"In the future, we will also strengthen the construction of public information service platforms for logistics, and push government departments such as transportation, public security traffic management and market supervision, as well as enterprises and institutions such as railways, ports and aviation to make public data related to logistics open to the public." said by Zhang Jiangbo.