□ Written by Zeng Rui

Hurtling Towards Future —written at the time Chongqing Issued Implement Opinions on Speeding up Construction of Maritime Center in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River

□ Written by Zeng Rui

With a total length of more than 6300 kilometers, a dark blue river can be clearly seen on the Chinese map, which originates from west China rolling down towards the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. This mighty river, also named as the mother river of the Chinese nation is called Yangtze River. It is one of the most important symbols of Chinese civilization.

In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and nears mountains locates a mountainous city. The boat-shaped cliff coffi ns left by our ancestors in prehistoric period, the 38-year battle with the invaders at Diaoyucheng that freed Europe, and the glory time as the command center in the Far East of the World War against Fascist all proved that the formation and every leap-forward of this mountainous city, Chongqing, has something to do with the third longest river across the world.

Chongqing has issued Implement Opinions on Speeding up Construction of Maritime Center in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River recently, suggests that build Chongqing a central port city in the upper reaches of Yangtze River connecting the outside world through its waterway and driving domestic development. Chongqing will also speed up development of other combined transport of railway and waterway, highway and waterway and transfer between different waterways to provide the clients an integrated transportation service and, at the same time, to attract the cargos from neighbor provinces freighted through Yangtze River. Chongqing, located at the junction of “Belt and Road”initiative and Yangtze River Economic Belt, again stands in the spotlight because of Yangtze River.

Making water transport more influential and radiation area more concentrated

Implement Opinions on Speeding up Construction of Maritime Center in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River was offi cially released in September 2014 and the concept “Yangtze River Economic Belt” was also come out at the national strategic level. On March 28th, 2015 National Development and Reform Commission together with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce Department issued Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road and indentifi ed the national strategy of “Belt and Road” initiative. After successively release of the two national strategies, Chongqing has made great achievements on degree of opening, economic development orientation and infrastructure construction of transportation and port.

Chongqing government officially issued Opinions on Speeding up Construction of Maritime Center in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River on March 22nd, 2016 requiring that till 2020, Chongqing will form a framework including “a main waterway with two approaches” channel system and “four hubs and nine ports” port clusters and also a shipping system on the basis of modernized fleets of vessels and nesting areas of shipping service need as backup to complete a maritime center featuring “service+radiation” in the upper reaches of Yangtze River.

According to the Opinions, Chongqing will strive to promote the capacity of Yangtze River waterway and make it a central hub in west China and a base port for the ships in the upper reaches of Yangtze River. Chongqing will accelerate its construction of “1+3+9” port clusters and complete 4 hub-like ports combining railway, highway and waterway transportation, namely, Guoyuan in downtown area, Luohuang in Jiangjin District, Longtou in District and Xintian in Wanzhou District. By the end of 2020, the largescale and specialized port cluster with the theme “four hubs and nine ports” will be completed.

“During 13thfive-year-plan period, Guoyuan port will build a bridge to Eurasia and connecting Pacific Ocean depending on “Yuxinou” international railway. It will also build a national logistic hub opening eastward and an international logistic channel through west China to the Pacific Ocean.” The director of Chongqing Logistic Group Ltd., Co., described future Guoyuan port in this way.

Tang zongwei, deputy director of ManagementCommittee in Liangjiang New District made it clear when interviewed that Liangjiang New District will take advantages of three national-level hub, namely, airport, port and railway to speed up the development of combined transportation including railway, waterway, highway and air and enlarge all these combined transportations at the same time. First of all, 28.2 billion yuan will be invested to construct east terminal zone and the third airstrip. After the completion, annually passenger throughput will reach 45 million; the turnover of cargos will reach 1.1 million tons, and total 373000 flights departures and landing; second, the largest inland waters multimodal transport port will be built as part of the maritime center in the upper reaches of Yangtze River, depending on Guoyuan port and Cuntan port. What they will do in the third stage is to expand the opening function of Guoyuan port, which will contribute to conveying resources and staple commodity from the countries along “Belt and Road”, to launch international trade of staple commodity. In 2016, the southwest railway loop line, connecting Guoyuan port and the terminal of “Yuxinou” international railway, will be built, which achieves seamless link between Eurail and golden waterway of Yangtze River; at the same time, “Yuxinou”international railway freight station will be constructed near Guoyuan port. At that time, Yangtze River Economic Belt and “Belt and Road” initiative will be linked without any vacancy.

Tang Zongwei emphasized, “What’s important now is accelerating the construction of maritime center in the upper reaches of Yangtze River replying on Guoyuan port, because it will be a significant boost to optimize layout of the ports along Yangtze River, to build an integrated collaborative development mechanism for Yangtze River transportation and to promote the deep implementation of Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy.”

In the latest 5 years, with the rapid development of water transportation economy, Chongqing port has made itself a grand port with the handling capacity of more than billon tons of cargos for 5 consecutive years since the container throughput surpasses 1 million, about 10% raise of both volume of freight traffic and rotation volume of goods transport every year and the transfer proportion of cargos from neighbor provinces reaches to 43%. As for the ports, Chongqing Guoyuan port, Cuntan port and East port, the largest inland waters intermodal ports nationwide will be completed and come into service. At that time, the port handling capacity of the whole city will reach 180 million tons and 4 million of container handling capacity. Besides, the shipping supply rises to 6.6 million tons and the standardized rate of the shipping reaches to 76.5%. The annual sum is more than 7 billion yuan and over 20 billion in total, which means the increasingly influence of water transport and concentration of the radiated area.

The improvement and promotion of both transportation network and service system is a part of maritime center construction. According to “13th fi ve-year-plan”, Chongqing will accelerate the construction of Luohuang port in Jiangjin District, Longtou port in District and Xintian port in Wanzhou District in combination with expressway network, railway network and the construction of aviation hub to form a seamless linked transportation system. And the construction of multimodal transportation including railway, waterway, highway, air and transferring between different waterways would also be accelerated in order to attract the cargos from the cities along the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River conveyed through Yangtze waterway and “Yuxinou”international railway directly to Europe and expand trade between areas along the Yangtze River and countries along “Yuxinou” international railway.

At the same time, Chongqing will also seize the opportunity of the strategic interconnectivity demonstration project with Singapore to advance the cooperation of Chongqing Shipping Exchange with both Singapore and some European and North American countries. Chongqing will also build a base for shipping, logistics and some trade companies on the basis of shipping trade platform and the logistic hub of both Guoyuan port and Cuntan port and develop shipping to accomplish a agglomeration zone for shipping service featuring shipping key element gathered, function matured and market thrived in the upper reaches of Yangtze River.

We fi rmly believe, Chongqing, on the way constructing the maritime center, can certainly give full play to its shipping superiority and further open up with the consideration of helping surrounding areas and serving the whole drainage basin to make itself a central port city connecting the outside world through its waterway and driving domestic development and a maritime center featuring “service+radiation” in the upper reaches of Yangtze River, thus Chongqing would take more responsibility in national open up and fully integrate into the construction of “Belt and Road”, the development of Yangtze River Economic Belt and the west regions and improve inland opening-up of Chongqing in all respects.