Mobility Highlights the Vitality of Economic and Social Development in China (Big Data Observation)

Source: Statistical Communiqué on the Development of the Transportation Industry in 2023 　　Drafting: Shen Yiling

　　Core Reading

　　Recently, the Ministry of Transport released the "2023 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of the Transportation Industry", showing that in 2023, the mainland will complete 61.288 billion cross-regional personnel flows, a year-on-year increase of 30.7%, demonstrating the vitality of China's economic and social development.

　　In the past year, what are the characteristics of the mainland's transportation economy? What is the construction of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network? The reporter conducted an interview.

　　Transportation is the vein of the economy. Recently, the Ministry of Transport released the "2023 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of the Transportation Industry". According to the communiqué, in the past year, the mainland's transportation has continued to recover steadily, the cross-regional flow of people, freight and port cargo throughput has maintained rapid growth, and the scale of investment in transportation fixed assets has remained high.

　　The main skeleton of traffic is raised at an accelerated pace

　　The total mileage of the comprehensive transportation network exceeds 6 million kilometers

　　Since last year, the mainland's comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network has accelerated its formation, and the transportation has been moving forward from large to strong and from a good road, and the main framework for the development of a major country has been accelerated.

　　Railways extend in all directions. As of the end of last year, the operating mileage of railways nationwide reached 159,000 kilometers, of which 45,000 kilometers were high-speed railways. The density of the national railway network was 165.2 km/10,000 square kilometers, an increase of 4.1 km/10,000 square kilometers over the end of the previous year.

　　The highway is getting denser and denser. As of the end of last year, the national highway mileage was 5,436,800 kilometers, an increase of 82,000 kilometers over the end of the previous year. The density of highways reached 56.63 km/100 km², an increase of 0.85 km/100 km². Among them, the mileage of expressways exceeded 180,000 kilometers.

　　Water transport is becoming more developed. Looking at inland waterways, as of the end of last year, the navigable length of inland waterways nationwide was 128,200 kilometers, an increase of 184 kilometers over the end of the previous year. The navigable mileage of graded waterways accounted for 52.9% of the navigable mileage of inland waterways. Looking at port terminals, as of the end of last year, there were more than 22,000 berths for port production in the country, an increase of 700 over the end of the previous year. Among them, there were 2,878 berths of 10,000 tons and above, an increase of 127 over the end of the previous year.

　　Wider air coverage. As of the end of last year, 259 civil air transport airports had been certified, 255 cities (or regions) had regular flights to navigable, and 102 transport airports had an annual passenger throughput of more than 1 million passengers.

　　Rural transportation facilities are constantly improving. The investment in rural road construction has remained above 400 billion yuan for seven consecutive years, and the mileage of newly reconstructed rural roads has reached 188,000 kilometers throughout the year, and as of the end of last year, the mileage of rural roads in mainland China was 4,598,600 kilometers.

　　At present, the spatial pattern of the main skeleton of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network of "6 axes, 7 corridors and 8 channels" has been basically formed, with a total mileage of more than 6 million kilometers, and the mainland has built the world's largest high-speed railway network, highway network, postal express network and world-class port group, and the aviation and navigation reach the world.

　　Become one of the busiest countries in terms of transportation

　　On average, 150 million tons of cargo are transported every day

　　Transportation and logistics are the "barometer" of the real economy, and its busy level directly reflects the activity of the mainland economy. Since last year, China has become one of the busiest countries in terms of transportation services, with continuous improvement in transportation services, continuous optimization of transportation structure, and overall stability in production safety.

　　According to the data, last year, the mainland completed 54.747 billion tons of operating freight, an increase of 8.1% over the previous year, and the completed cargo turnover was 240646 million tons of kilometers, an increase of 6.3%. The cross-regional flow of people was 61.288 billion throughout the year, an increase of 30.7%, and the "arteries" and "microcirculation" were more surging.

　　In the dimension of time and the scale of one day, we can measure the busyness of today's China——

　　Look at the flow of people, travel is more efficient. On average, more than 160 million people travel across regions every day, including 10 million by train, 150 million by road, 700,000 by ship, and 1.7 million by air, with an average of nearly 280 million people traveling by urban public transport and taxis every day.

　　Look at the transportation of goods, the operation is more orderly. On average, 150 million tons of goods are transported every day, of which about 14 million tons are transported by train, 110 million tons by car, 25 million tons by ship and 20,000 tons by air. About 450 million parcels and parcels are received and sent every day, including 360 million express deliveries.

　　Since last year, with the full return to normal operation of the economy and society, the obvious recovery of international transportation has become a significant feature.

　　According to the communiqué, in 2023, the passenger traffic of mainland civil aviation international routes will increase by 1,461.7% over the previous year. The China-Europe Railway Express ran 17,000 trains and sent 1.9 million TEUs throughout the year, an increase of 6% and 18% respectively over the previous year. The port's foreign trade cargo throughput and foreign trade container throughput increased by 9.5% and 5% respectively over the previous year. The volume of international (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) express delivery business was 3.07 billion, an increase of 52% over the previous year.

　　"The continuous improvement of the urban and rural logistics terminal distribution service network, a more open and shared, global coverage, safe and reliable, and strong international logistics supply chain, help transportation and logistics show a continuous recovery and development trend, and become a strong support for the smooth circulation of the service economy." Zhou Jian, deputy director of the Information Center of the Academy of Science of the Ministry of Transport, said.

　　Transportation investment continues to run at a high level

　　Investment in transport infrastructure is at an all-time high

　　People enjoy their travel, and goods flow smoothly, which is inseparable from the continuous afterburner of transportation infrastructure investment.

　　Since last year, the mainland has continuously strengthened infrastructure construction, and the scale of investment in transportation fixed assets has remained above 3 trillion yuan for seven consecutive years, reaching 3.9 trillion yuan in 2023, and an average of 10.7 billion yuan per day will be completed in transportation infrastructure, a record high.

　　Specifically, the investment in railway fixed assets was 764.5 billion yuan, an increase of 7.5% over the previous year; the investment in fixed assets of highways was 2,824 billion yuan, down 1% from the previous year; The investment in fixed assets of waterways was 201.6 billion yuan, an increase of 20.1% over the previous year.

　　"With major projects as the traction and the network as the focus on strengthening the network, the investment in transportation fixed assets continues to run at a high level, helping the transportation trunk network, the express network, and the basic network to become denser and denser, so that the people can stride from 'walking' to 'walking well'." Zhou Jian said.

　　The construction of smart and green transportation has been continuously increased. As of the end of last year, 18 automated container terminals have been built in China, and 27 automated container terminals are under construction, ranking first in the world in terms of the number of automated container terminals built and under construction. Railway electric locomotives accounted for 65.3%, an increase of 0.9 percentage points, and new energy vehicles accounted for 77.7% of buses and trams, an increase of 6 percentage points.

　　Solid results have been achieved in the construction of rural roads. In 2023, the country will complete an investment of 484.3 billion yuan in fixed assets for rural roads, complete the reconstruction of 188,000 kilometers of rural roads, and renovate 8,418 dangerous bridges on rural roads. The country's 832 poverty-alleviated counties have completed 718.3 billion yuan of fixed asset investment in highways.

　　Major transportation projects have the characteristics of large single investment, large social impact and strong driving effect, and are one of the important areas for expanding domestic demand, stabilizing growth and promoting employment. The Shenzhong Passage was completed and opened, the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge was officially closed, and more than half of the earthwork of the Pinglu Canal has been excavated...... Since the beginning of this year, all localities have accelerated the construction of major projects, and a virtuous circle of "a batch under construction, a new batch and a batch of reserves" has been formed, and transportation investment has continued to play a role as a "stabilizer" for the economic recovery.

　　According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Transport, the next step will be to supervise and guide the local government to speed up the implementation of projects under construction, form more physical workload as soon as possible, and accelerate the construction of the main skeleton of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network; At the same time, we will actively promote the digital upgrading of highway and waterway infrastructure, green transformation and large-scale equipment renewal, and accelerate the cultivation and expansion of new quality productivity in transportation.

Source: People's Daily