Full Text: Development of China's Transport (4)

3. Technology Innovation and Application

China leads the world in infrastructure construction. China's technologies for high-speed, alpine, plateau and heavy-haul railways have reached the world's advanced level, while high-speed railways have become a symbol of made-in-China and going-global products. Railway and highway construction technologies have overcome world-level geological challenges such as plateau permafrost, and expansive soil and desert. The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway and Qinghai-Tibet Railway has been completed and they have been opened to traffic. A number of world-class large bridges and tunnels have been built with globally advanced construction technologies. China's key construction technologies for offshore deepwater ports, improved technologies for large estuary waterways and long waterways, and construction technologies for large-scale airports are leading the world. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Yangshan Port Container Terminal, Yangtze Estuary Deepwater Channel Improvement Project, and other major construction projects have been carried out.

Equipment manufacturing has made rapid progress. High-performance railway equipment technologies with proprietary intellectual property rights, represented by high-speed railways and high-power locomotives, have reached the advanced world level, with some of them leading the world. New-energy road transport equipment has realized preliminary industrialization. Feeder liners, general aviation aircraft and helicopters independently developed by China have been put into use, and the C919 airliner has rolled off the assembly line, making China one of the few countries capable of developing large airliners independently. China's manufacturing technologies for large, specialized equipment for terminal loading and unloading, special marine engineering machinery vessels and complete sets of container transport equipment are world-leaders, while its 300-m saturation diving technology has achieved a breakthrough. Sorting technologies in postal services, including optical character recognition (OCR), video complement and address check via bar code have reached the world' s top level.

Information and intelligent technologies have been extensively applied. Information and communications technologies, such as big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things and mobile Internet, have been widely applied in transport, and combined online and traditional business models are thriving. Railway passenger transport has developed an online booking system, and realized IT application in transport management. Expressway transport has formed a nationwide Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) network. Port Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and Vessel Automatic Identification System (AIS) have been widely applied in water transport management, and an electronic nautical chart of the trunk waterways of the Yangtze River has been developed. China's civil aviation business information system is globally advanced. Postal services have established a video joint monitoring system at national, provincial and municipal levels. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and other modern navigation technologies have been applied to civil aviation and logistics. The Beidou Navigation Satellite System has become the third GNSS applied in international navigation.

4. Reform and Rule of Law

Market system has been improved. Through over 30 years of marketization, transport construction, maintenance and traffic have become market-oriented. China has issued its Negative List for Market Access, encouraging non-government capital to invest in transport operation, and vigorously promoting Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Transport has separated government functions from enterprise operation completely. The government has also streamlined its administration and delegated authority, and innovated and improved government approval services. Transport has been boosting the market credit system and improving market regulation. As a result, a unified, open transport market of orderly competition has been formed.

Legal framework has taken shape. To meet the demands of reform and development, China has promulgated, revised and annulled transport laws and regulations. Currently, China has eight relevant laws, namely, the Railway Law, Highway Law, Law on Ports, Waterway Law, Maritime Law, Maritime Traffic Safety Law, Civil Aviation Law and Postal Law. In addition, there are 65 relevant administrative regulations, including the Regulations on the Administration of Railway Safety, Regulations on the Administration of Highway Safety, Regulations on Road Transport, Regulations on International Maritime Transport, Regulations on the Administration of Traffic Safety in Inland Waters, Regulations on Seamen, Regulations on the Administration of Civil Airports, Regulations on Civil Aviation Safety, and Rules for the Implementation of the Postal Law. There are also more than 300 relevant departmental rules.

Comprehensive transport management system has been preliminarily established. In 2008 and 2013 respectively China launched two rounds of institutional reform to establish a large transport department, namely, the Ministry of Transport, which put the National Railways Administration, Civil Aviation Administration of China and State Postal Bureau under its management. All localities are promoting structural reform for comprehensive transport management, and quickening their pace in building a comprehensive transport system. (mo