BEIJING: China’s transportation authorities say the sector had more than meet the goals it set for 2020.
Li Xiaopeng, Minister of Transport said at a Thursday press briefing in Beijing that by the end of 2020, China’s railway operation mileage, highway mileage, and urban rail transit mileage had all become No.1 in the world.
“Looking back at the numbers we set for 2020, we can safely say we not only met the expectations but also outperformed in many fields,” Li said.
China’s courier services are expected to send out 80 billion parcels this year, ranking the first globally. The industry has registered a yearly growth rate of over 22 percent since 2016, adding 700 billion yuan in revenue, and hundreds of thousands of job opportunities, according to Ma Junsheng, head of the State Post Bureau.
But it was not all smooth sails in the past five years.
The sector, especially the aviation industry, was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020.
Aviation authorities say it’s by carefully aligning and closely monitoring all its projects to overcome difficult situations.
In September, the aviation sector saw a robust rebound. The total volume of air transport had rebounded to 96.9 percent last year, and domestic passenger traffic had rebounded to 98 percent last year, says Feng Zhenglin, Head of Civil Aviation Administration of China.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global aviation industry hard, but we are the first to bounce back,” Feng said. Bullet train driver Yang Zhen broke the world speed record for high-speed trains in late 2016. Since then, he says, his line of work has well and truly been in the fast lane, with a whirlwind of investments, new launches and developments.
“In 2016, we launched one new railway line starting from Zhengzhou. In 2019, we opened three new lines from Zhengzhou. And this year, we’re looking to open a new route between Zhengzhou and Taiyuan,” Yang told CGTN.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN
exchange item
