Coastal and inland port waterways are important hub nodes and channels of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network, playing an important role in building a modern industrial system and promoting high-level opening up to the outside world. Not long ago, the Ministry of Transport issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Planning and Construction of Coastal and Inland Port and Waterway in the New Era" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing 15 measures to further optimize and enhance the national water transportation infrastructure network, and build a modern port and waterway system with high quality. System optimization layout, port and waterway construction. China's water transportation has basically formed an infrastructure development pattern with north-south shipping, the Yangtze River trunk line and other major channels as the main channels, and major ports as hubs. The freight volume and port throughput have steadily ranked first in the world, and the status of a major water transportation country has gradually been established. The issuance of this Opinion, within the framework of top-level industry planning, proposes targeted and implementable policy measures, which will help China accelerate its transformation from a major water transportation country to a strong water transportation country and promote the high-quality development of the water transportation industry Huang Li, Senior Engineer at the Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, said. Focus on the transformation of development concepts. Faced with the long-term rigid constraints of resource and environmental carrying capacity, the water transportation industry should pay more attention to integrating ecological, low-carbon, and people-oriented concepts into all aspects of water transportation development, "said Yuan Ziwen, a senior engineer at the Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport. The" Opinions "focus on strengthening key areas such as the" resilience "of coastal ports and the" smoothness "of inland water transportation, and pay more attention to the efficient and intensive use of land and shoreline resources to enhance the level of green, intelligent, and safe development. Highlight the improvement of development level. The role of ports as nodes in the global supply chain is becoming increasingly prominent, but the radiation capacity of China's port hubs is weak, and the modern shipping service functions are insufficient. The overall service level still has a certain gap compared to international advanced levels. In Huang Li's view, the "Opinions" focus on supporting the implementation of major national strategies and ensuring the security of key areas, deepening the specific requirements and construction priorities for building world-class port clusters and international hub ports, and emphasizing the improvement of the development level of coastal ports. Strengthen the integration of innovation and development. Huang Li believes that the "Opinions" focus on key areas such as optimizing the utilization of existing resources, multimodal transport development, port industry city collaboration, and smart green transformation, and comprehensively promote cost reduction, efficiency improvement, strong services, and integration to fully unleash the comparative advantages and development potential of water transportation. Promoting the development of port clusters towards "world-class" coastal ports accounts for 90% of China's foreign trade transportation volume. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, significant achievements have been made in the development of coastal ports in China. The overall scale of infrastructure remains the world's largest, and the ability to guarantee the maritime supply chain has been continuously enhanced, providing strong support for China to become the world's largest trading nation in goods. Ports should better play a hub role, consolidate and serve the country's high-level opening-up and global supply chain stability Ding Wentao, a senior engineer at the Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, introduced that the "Opinions" combine goal orientation and problem orientation, and clarify the new tasks for the planning and construction of coastal ports in the next stage. Efforts will be made to enhance energy levels and promote the construction of the national port hub system. On the one hand, clenching fingers into fists promotes coordinated development. China's coastal ports have formed five major port clusters including the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta, Southeast Coast, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao, and Beibu Gulf, promoting the development of port clusters towards "world-class" status. The Opinion requires strengthening regional coordination and enhancing the joint construction, management, and utilization of Tianjin Hebei anchorage areas in the Bohai Rim region; In the Yangtze River Delta region, we will coordinate along the Yangtze River and coastal areas, improve the layout of key cargo transportation systems, and jointly build a shipping hub that radiates globally; The Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area aims to consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's position as an international shipping center, elevate the level of world-class port clusters, and enhance its radiating and driving role. On the other hand, it is targeted and emphasizes resilience. The current international situation is full of instability and uncertainty, which puts higher demands on the stability of China's important energy and raw material supply chains. The Opinion proposes to fully leverage the backbone role of major ports in foreign trade and bulk material transportation; Strengthen the effective supply of key cargo transportation system terminals. In the future, major ports should focus on ensuring the stability of the maritime supply chain for food, energy, and industries, and enhancing their reserve emergency allocation capabilities. Make efforts in transformation and upgrading, and promote the high-quality development of ports. The Opinion proposes key tasks for future high-quality development from the aspects of efficient utilization of shorelines, accelerated development of multimodal transport, and construction of smart green ports Ding Wentao believes that this will promote the transformation of coastal ports from pursuing speed and scale to focusing on quality and efficiency, from independent development to integrated integration, and from relying on traditional factors to relying on new quality productivity drivers. As an important component of the comprehensive transportation system, inland waterway transportation has the advantages of large transportation capacity, low cost, small land occupation, low energy consumption, and low pollution. After years of construction, the position of river transportation in China's comprehensive transportation system has been greatly improved, accounting for 8.2% of the total social goods turnover from 3.9% in 2010, and saving over 3 trillion yuan in logistics costs. Fang Sensong, a senior engineer at the Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, said that the "Opinions" focus on the main issues and propose ideas for the future planning and construction of inland waterway transportation. Accelerate the clearance of blockages and checkpoints. Compared with the planning goals, there are still about 8000 kilometers of national high-level waterways to be built, and the radiation capacity of major inland ports and the agglomeration capacity of port related industries still need to be strengthened. "Fang Sensong introduced that the" Opinions "focus on the main trunk lines, major channels, and key areas, highlighting the strategic role of the Yangtze River, Xijiang River, and Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal, as well as the driving effect of key areas in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, to open up key nodes that affect the overall situation and can significantly reduce logistics costs, and to smooth the connection network of trunk and branch lines directly to key industrial bases and industrial towns. Continuously strengthen the connectivity system. The trend of large-scale inland waterway freight ships in China is evident, with an average tonnage of over 1600 tons. The national high-grade waterway mainly navigable for ships of over 1000 tons accounts for 20% of the total inland waterway navigation mileage and undertakes more than 80% of the country's inland waterway freight volume. In the future, national high-level waterways will play a greater role in long-distance transportation of bulk materials. The Opinion proposes to fully leverage the main role of trunk waterways, comprehensively improve the smoothness of water network waterways in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, and focus on tackling the construction of substandard sections of tributary waterways, clarifying the direction of national high-level waterway construction. The water transportation industry in our country is currently in a critical period of strengthening infrastructure construction and focusing on expanding effective investment. The issuance of the 'Opinions' will play a positive guiding role in water transportation construction projects and promote the industry to move towards high-quality development The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Transport said. (New Society)