China plans to reduce logistics costs by nearly 121 billion yuan (£13.9 billion) this year, according to the Ministry of Transport.
The plan is to continue to increase rail freight volume, upgrade the water transport system, regulate highway freight transport and speed up multimodal transport in a bid to improve its logistics network and optimize its structure, said spokesman Wu Chungeng.
The ministry has been working to reduce logistics costs and raise efficiency. It reduced logistics spending by 56bn yuan (£6.4bn) in 2016, 68bn yuan (£7.8bn) in 2017 and 98bn yuan (£11.2bn) in 2018.
The plan for 2019 includes further integration of important ports and harbours into the inland multimodal transport and logistics network, which will connect them with more railways and highways and enable improved cargo interoperability.
The country will also expand the use of pilot programs to deepen reform of the administrative law enforcement system in the logistics industry to improve its efficiency; and it will streamline certain fees related to ports, highways and airports, he said. In addition, the ministry will step up its efforts to manage the effects of eliminating highway toll stations at provincial boundaries.
The ministry also called for small and medium-sized enterprises to forge alliances for common development to consolidate the fragmented logistics sector.
