Sustainable Development of Transport in China

3. Helping Farmers Improve Their Lives Through Transport

Better transport has cleared the bottlenecks that delayed economic and social development in poor areas, supporting farmers' efforts to rise out of poverty and achieve moderate prosperity, reinforcing China's endeavors to modernize agriculture and rural areas, and laying a solid foundation for rural revitalization in the new era.

Smoothing farmers' path to moderate prosperity through rural roads. To achieve the goal of greater connectivity, from 2012 to 2019 China built or upgraded 2.09 million km of rural roads, including about 1.1 million km in poor areas, bringing the total length of rural roads to 4.2 million km, and connecting another 51,000 administrative villages in poor areas with asphalt and concrete roads. From 2016 to 2019, China built 96,000 km of asphalt and concrete roads in poor areas to reach natural villages with relatively large populations, and implemented a safety program on 458,000 km of rural roads, effectively preventing and reducing accidents.

The transport authorities have issued Administrative Measures for Rural Road Construction, Administrative Measures for Rural Road Quality, and Administrative Measures for Rural Road Maintenance, and formulated or modified relevant technical standards and specifications. The government issued the Opinions on Furthering Institutional Reform of Rural Road Management and Maintenance and put in place other auxiliary mechanisms to ensure long-term results in this field. From 2012 to 2019, the number of administrative villages with access to bus services increased by 54,000.

To develop logistics in rural areas, China has stepped up the construction of a three-tiered rural logistics network at county, township and village levels, which collected and delivered more than 15 billion parcels in 2019. Logistics companies are now able to offer better delivery services between urban and rural areas by transporting industrial products to the countryside and agricultural products to cities, and providing delivery services to the door.

Facilitating poverty alleviation through railways. China has accelerated the implementation of railway construction plans, and increased railway coverage to give poor areas better access to the rail network. By the end of 2019, RMB3.3 trillion, or 78 percent of total investment in railway infrastructure, has gone into railway projects in the 14 contiguous poverty-stricken areas, old revolutionary base areas, areas with large ethnic minority populations, and border areas. The new railways connect 274 national poor counties, integrating them into a larger "high-speed rail economic circle".

Big data analysis is employed to optimize passenger train schedules for poor areas. In 2019, an average of 2,328 passenger trains ran every day with stops in poor areas, and 594 special tourist trains were arranged to poor areas, which promoted tourism, retail and catering businesses and helped stimulate consumption in areas along the lines. To transport agricultural products from poor areas, railway transport services effectively scheduled freight trains such as point-to-point trains, express container trains and high-speed express trains, which have transported 1.71 billion tonnes of freight since 2018.

Delivering tangible benefits by advancing Transport Plus initiatives. China encourages new business models such as Transport Plus Tourism, Transport Plus Business, and Transport Plus Poverty Alleviation, and promotes the extensive integration of transport and business in poverty-stricken areas. From 2012 to 2019, China built or upgraded 59,000 km of roads serving resource transport, tourism and business development in poor areas.

The Transport Plus Express Delivery poverty alleviation projects integrate resources from different sectors, including transport, supply and marketing cooperatives, retail and e-commerce, and postal services. Drones have been tested to deliver parcels in rural areas. In 2018, China's postal service companies completed a total of rural e-commerce transactions worth RMB1.4 trillion.

Other new models, such as Transport Plus Agriculture Plus E-commerce, Transport Plus Culture Plus Tourism, Transport Plus Employment Plus Public Welfare, have also played their part in poverty alleviation. Distinctive local businesses have emerged and flourished along with the newly built roads, creating a path to wealth for rural people.

Reinforcing China's efforts to build a beautiful countryside through rural transport. Transport departments have actively participated in the socialist new countryside program, and used rural road construction to expand the effort to maintain a clean environment and foster social etiquette and civility in the countryside. Trees have been planted and village profiles enhanced along the roads, turning rural roads into an attractive element of local scenery.

Interconnected roads help improve people's lives and environment in rural areas, enhance public services such as education, health care, and culture, and promote integrated urban-rural development. Following the rapid expansion of rural roads, the vast countryside is finding greater prosperity and becoming more attractive.