SAVANNAH, Ga. -- While ports have attracted the lions share of the billions of dollars China is pouring into development of its transportation network, Beijing is now aiming investment at its weak inland infrastructure, according to speakers at The Journal of Commerces Third Annual China Trade & Logistics Conference.
The transportation sector is still the weak link in Chinas economy, said Qi Zhang, third secretary for commerce at the Chinese Consulate in Washington. The major rail lines are overloaded.
The government plans to invest $42 billion in railroad development over the next five years, according to Ted Krohn, principal of KrohnConsult International. That will enable the country to add about 11,000 miles of rail track, Zhang said.
John Cheng, an advisor to China Railway Container Transport Corp., said intermodal development is a top priority in the governments five-year plan for 2006-10. The plan calls for the development of 40 intermodal terminals, 18 logistics parks, and 100 container handling terminals, Cheng said, noting that the country had no dedicated rail intermodal terminals at the start of the plan. Trucks accounted for 84 percent of the inland container moves, with waterways handling 15 percent and railroads a mere 1.6 percent.
Railroad operations were not commercially oriented, but now they are market-driven, he said.
Development of rail intermodal service is vital to ensure smooth transfers of cargo at ports as well as at the nations land borders, he said.
China has been building a new network called the Euro-Asia Trans-Continental Railroad, modeled on the old Silk Road. The new route is nicknamed the Iron Steel road, Cheng said. He noted that last week Maersk organized a rail shipment from Shenzhen to Prague in the Czech Republic.
Cheng said the country has also begun operating double-stack trains.
|
The infrastructure development is aimed not only at international trade, but also developing Chinas domestic market.
Railroads, highways and waterways are all key elements in the governments Go West policy to reduce the disparities between the richer coastal areas and the poorer interior provinces, home to tens of millions of unemployed who previously worked on farms or in state-owned enterprises that guaranteed employment for life.
Beijing has put special emphasis on developing the area along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. This region has the greatest potential for foreign trade and is also attracting the most foreign investment, said Robert Kledal, Maersk Inc.s senior vice president, area line and operations management for North America.
