The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Action Plan for Effectively Reducing Logistics Costs in the Whole Society", which deploys effective measures to reduce logistics costs in the whole society from a global and strategic perspective. Logistics is the "backbone" of the real economy, connecting the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. It is a modern service system that supports production, promotes consumption, facilitates dual circulation, and participates in international competition. Wang Wei, former director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, stated that effectively reducing the logistics costs of the whole society can drive the improvement of economic operation efficiency, and provide important basic support for enhancing the core competitiveness of industries and even the overall competitiveness of the national economy. At the same time, it is conducive to accelerating the construction of an international logistics system and providing reliable security support for safeguarding the country's economic and social development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with steady economic growth, continuous policy efforts, and upgrading of modern logistics, the ratio of total social logistics costs to GDP in China has decreased from 18% in 2012 to 14.4% in 2023. The action plan proposes to strive to reduce the ratio of total social logistics costs to GDP to around 13.5% by 2027. How do you view this goal? After making efforts to achieve this goal, China can save about 1 trillion yuan in logistics costs annually, which will also be translated into actual profits for enterprises He Dengcai, Vice President of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, said. Achieving this goal is not a one-day effort. The action plan specifies 20 key tasks in 5 aspects, including deepening institutional and mechanism reform, promoting the integrated development of industrial and supply chains, improving the national logistics hub and channel network, strengthening innovation driven and improving quality and efficiency, and increasing policy support and guidance. Reform is the fundamental way to effectively reduce the logistics costs of the whole society. The action plan will prioritize deepening institutional and mechanism reforms, and clarify three key tasks: promoting reforms in key areas of railways, advancing governance and reform of the highway freight market, and promoting open and interconnected logistics data. This series of deployments focuses on solving the deep-seated problems in the development of logistics, breaking down institutional and mechanism barriers between different logistics industries, logistics and economic industry supply and demand, and cross regional integration, in order to consolidate the foundation of development and form new driving forces for development Lu Chengyun, a researcher at the Comprehensive Transportation Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomics, said. It is worth noting that reducing the logistics costs of the whole society is not about lowering the prices of logistics services in China, nor is it about reducing the profits of logistics enterprises. Instead, it is about coordinating the supply of logistics services with the demand of the real economy, optimizing the supply chain organization, and expanding the huge cost reduction strategic space. Lu Chengyun said that the action plan proposes to promote the integrated development of industrial and supply chains, and puts it before the task of improving national logistics hubs and channel networks. This not only reflects its huge cost reduction strategic spatial value, but also highlights the importance of logistics system construction. How to promote the integrated development of industrial and supply chains? The action plan specifies six key tasks: accelerating the construction of a modern supply chain system; Improve the modern commercial and trade circulation system; Implement fine logistics engineering for bulk commodities; Implement the "New Three Types" logistics efficient and convenient project; Promote the improvement of international supply chain quality and efficiency; Build a modern logistics leading enterprise and a specialized and innovative enterprise. Strengthening innovation driven and improving quality and efficiency are effective ways to reduce logistics costs for the entire society. The action plan deploys key tasks such as promoting the development of logistics digitization, accelerating the green transformation of logistics, and implementing logistics standardization actions. The key to this is to promote intelligence, carbon reduction, and green expansion in the logistics industry, empower logistics resource utilization efficiency and industry operation efficiency with digital intelligence, cultivate and form new quality productivity in the logistics field, enhance the innovation capability of the entire industry, and better seize the forefront of global innovation and development Wang Wei said. He Dengcai stated that effectively reducing the logistics costs of the whole society relies on the construction of a unified, efficient, competitive and orderly logistics market, which cannot be separated from a suitable policy environment. All relevant departments and localities should work together under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, strengthen policy and element support, and jointly promote the implementation of action plans. (New Society)