Water Transport Makes Up Half of China's Total Freight VolumeNews from the National Water Transportation Trade Management Meeting said that in 1999, China's water transport volume was close to 1.2 billion tons, the rotation volume of goods reached 2126.3 billion ton/km, with the respective increases of 165 percent and 463 percent over 1978. The proportion of water transportation to China's total transportation service increased by 14.4 percent, constituting 52.8 percent of the total volume of goods handled by various means of transportation. The freight volume of foreign trade accounted for 84 percent.Authoritative sources say that China's water transportation, used to be regarded as a bottleneck hindering the development of the national economy, now, water transport market has gained rapid development thanks to the effort to break down the barriers between trades, between departments or regions, and to encourage diversified economic sectors to jointly develop water transport service. Sources show that China had more than 260,000 transportation ships last year and had been elected as A-Class council member of international maritime organizations for six times in a row. The infrastructures of inland river transportation have been notably improved. The number of the berths of coastal ports was increased by 12 times over 1987, among which 700 are 10,000-ton-class deep-water berths. |
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