Source: Website of the Ministry of Transport

Inland waterway transportation is an important component of the comprehensive transportation system and water resource utilization, playing a significant role in promoting economic development in river basins, optimizing industrial layout, and serving the opening-up to the outside world. In order to implement the strategic deployment of building a strong transportation country, promote the high-quality development of inland waterway transportation, serve the implementation of national strategies, and assist in the construction of a modern socialist country with Chinese characteristics, this outline is formulated.

1、 Overall requirements

（1） Guiding ideology.

（2） Development goals.

By 2035, a modern inland waterway transportation system that satisfies the people, provides strong guarantees, and is at the forefront of the world will be basically established. Significant breakthroughs have been made in the infrastructure, transportation services, green development, and safety supervision of inland waterway transportation. The comparative advantages in comprehensive transportation have been fully utilized, and the ability to safeguard national strategies has been significantly enhanced. The 1000 ton inland waterway has reached 25000 kilometers; The main ports and key port areas have basically achieved railway entry; The turnover of inland goods accounts for 9% of the total social proportion; The emergency arrival time for important flight segments shall not exceed 45 minutes, and the emergency arrival time for major ports (areas) shall not exceed 30 minutes; The proportion of new energy and clean energy ships has significantly increased, and pollutants such as ship sewage and garbage have been collected and discharged in compliance with standards; New generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence are widely used in inland waterway transportation.

By 2050, a modern inland waterway transportation system that satisfies the people, provides strong guarantees, and is at the forefront of the world will be fully established. The east-west cross regional water transportation corridor is efficient and smooth, and the north-south cross water system is connected. With first-class port and shipping infrastructure, first-class shipping technology and equipment, high-quality shipping services, and intelligent safety supervision, we aim to comprehensively modernize the governance system and governance capacity, and serve the socialist modernization of a strong country.

2、 Main tasks

（1） Construct an inland waterway system that connects the main and branch waterways with the river and sea.

Accelerate the construction of a national high-level waterway that spans east and west, connects north and south, and reaches seaports, with a thousand ton level waterway as the backbone. Strengthen the east-west cross regional water transportation corridor, form transverse corridors of the Yangtze River trunk line, Xijiang trunk line, Huaihe River trunk line, and Heilongjiang River channel, study and solve the navigation bottleneck of the Three Gorges hub, promote the preliminary work of the new water transportation channel of the Three Gorges hub, and expand and extend the main tributary waterways. Open the north-south trans basin waterway channel, build a new Grand Canal, and comprehensively promote the Beijing Hangzhou Canal navigation restoration project to the north of the Yellow River between the Yangtze River, the Pearl River, Huaihe River and other major water systems, as well as the Pinglu Canal and other canal communication projects, forming a longitudinal corridor of the Beijing Hangzhou Canal, the Yangtze Huaihe Trunk Line, the Zhejiang Jiangxi Guangdong Channel, and the Han Hunan Guangxi Channel. Build a high-level waterway network in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta countries that adapts to the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and the development of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, connect with major coastal ports, improve internal connections, and construct river sea intermodal transportation channels in water network areas.

Coordinate and promote the development of international navigation channels for border rivers. Adhere to relevant international agreements, actively promote the comprehensive development, utilization, and maintenance management of important international navigable river channels such as Heilongjiang, Lancang, and Yalu Rivers, and orderly promote the construction, maintenance, and management of international navigable river channels such as Tumen River, Erguna River, Wusuli River, Honghe River, Nujiang River, Beilun River, etc.

Actively expanding other shipping routes. Actively promote the construction of tributary waterways in the eastern region and expand the scope of extended water transportation services. Enhance the capacity of tributary waterways and reservoir waterways in the central and western regions, and improve regional transportation and public travel conditions. Adhere to the comprehensive utilization and ecological protection of water resources in the Yellow River, and promote the construction of waterways in various sections of the Yellow River according to local conditions. Based on the actual situation in various regions, actively promote the development of tourism routes and the restoration of navigation barriers and dams.

（2） Build a modern port with intensive and efficient functional collaboration.

Strengthen the radiation function of port hubs. Improve the collection and distribution system, promote the construction of connecting channels between key port areas, development zones along the Yangtze River, and logistics parks, accelerate the opening of the "last mile" of railway and high-grade highways entering the port, focus on increasing the proportion of railway waterway collection and distribution of bulk cargo and container rail intermodal transportation, and effectively reduce logistics costs. Optimize port storage facilities and distribution networks, improve the efficiency of water transportation ports, expand modern logistics, commercial services, and bulk commodity trade functions of ports, and promote the development of a full process logistics supply service chain centered around ports.

Promote resource integration and improve port layout. Deepen the integration of port resources, orderly and effectively promote the integrated development of regional ports, and form a development pattern with clear levels, complementary functions, and orderly competition. Classify and activate existing port shorelines, strictly control newly added port shorelines, and focus on strengthening the construction of intensive and large-scale public port areas. Standardize the construction and management of public anchorages in ports, and coordinate the sharing of public resources such as waterways, anchorages, and water service areas.

Promote the coordinated development of Hong Kong, industry, and city. Strengthen the effective connection between ports, urban and rural construction, and industrial development layout, promote the coordinated development of urban landscape coastline and port production coastline, strengthen the construction of tourist passenger terminals, inland river cruise terminals, and convenient docks in storage areas, and integrate port pollution prevention and control into the urban ecological environment protection system.

（3） Build an economically efficient and integrated shipping service system.

Promote the development of standardized and specialized transportation vessels. Continue to promote the standardization of ship types, promote the standardization of transportation ships in water systems or regions, and guide existing non-standard ships to gradually exit the shipping market. Develop and revise ship safety technical standards, facility and equipment allocation standards, and personnel allocation standards. Vigorously developing containers LNG、 Specialized ships for commodity automobile roll on/roll off, chemical transportation, etc., actively developing closed bulk cargo ships. Accelerate the research and development of specific ship types for direct access to rivers and seas, as well as large leisure and vacation luxury cruise ships and characteristic cruise ship types for short and medium distance leisure and sightseeing tours.

Develop economically efficient river sea intermodal and multimodal transport. Improve the relevant policies and technical standards for the development of direct river sea transportation, form an organic connection between river sea direct transportation and river sea intermodal transportation logistics system, and improve the level of river sea transportation services. Strengthen the sharing of information resources, accelerate the unification of technical standards and service rules, and vigorously develop multimodal transport with ports as the hub and the "one-stop system" as the core.

Accelerate the improvement of inland waterway transportation services. Based on the construction of shipping centers such as Wuhan and Chongqing, we will vigorously enhance our service capabilities in finance, insurance, maritime arbitration, shipping transactions, and information consulting. We will research and develop futures trading, develop a water transportation e-commerce platform that integrates cargo, port, and ship elements, and provide online and offline services.

Promote the transformation and upgrading of port and shipping enterprises. Promote the large-scale, intensive, and specialized development of port and shipping enterprises, optimize the market entity structure, and encourage advantageous enterprises to promote joint venture cooperation and mergers and acquisitions. Actively develop inland waterway logistics and supply chain systems, and promote the transformation of port and shipping enterprises into full-service logistics carriers. Encourage shipping companies to develop upstream and downstream industries such as ships, ports, cargo, and finance, and build an integrated industrial chain development and operation model.

Develop high-quality inland waterway passenger transportation. Promote the integrated development of inland waterway passenger transportation with tourism, culture, and cities, promote the tourism, comfort, and passenger rolling development of waterway passenger transportation, and improve the quality of passenger transportation. Adapt measures to local conditions to improve the quality and level of rural inland waterway passenger transportation service facilities, and promote equalization of public transportation services. Build high-quality inland waterway routes with high standards, and enrich and improve diversified products for water tourism and passenger transportation.

（4） Practice a green development approach that is resource efficient and environmentally friendly.

Strengthen the prevention and control of ship port pollution. Research and promote the extension of ship emission control zone policies to inland rivers nationwide, and improve emission control standards. Accelerate the construction and regular operation of facilities such as port ship pollutant reception and transportation, chemical washing stations, and hazardous chemical anchorages along key waterways such as the Yangtze River trunk line, and take the lead in implementing zero discharge from ships to water bodies in closed waters such as important reservoir areas. Coordinate the upgrading and renovation of existing dock environmental protection facilities and the construction and use of new dock environmental protection facilities. Strengthen the construction and supervision of intelligent monitoring and early warning capabilities in key water areas.

Intensify the promotion and application of new and clean energy. Promote LNG energy-saving and environmentally friendly ships, explore the development of pure electric, fuel cell and other power ships, and research and promote the application of solar energy, wind energy, hydrogen energy and other technologies in the industry. Promote the use of shore power for ships to dock. Improve the construction of green service systems such as water green comprehensive service areas and liquefied natural gas refueling terminals. Strengthen the application of energy-saving and emission reduction technologies in ports.

Strengthen the ecological protection and restoration of inland waterway transportation. Strictly adhere to the ecological protection red line, integrate the concept of resource conservation and environmental protection into the entire process of inland water transportation planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation, and promote the construction of green waterways and green ports. Promote the ecological restoration project of early construction of shipping facilities, and strengthen the ecological protection and restoration of important ecological functional areas. Implement greening projects in the port area and guide the port to adopt various measures to carry out ecological restoration of land and water areas.

（5） Build a fully functional and capable shipping safety system.

Improve the intrinsic safety level of facilities and equipment. Improve the safety technical standards and specifications for inland waterway transportation infrastructure, establish a modern engineering construction quality management system, continuously increase investment in infrastructure safety protection and maintenance management, and promote high-quality construction and refined management. Strengthen the quality management of transportation vehicles such as ships and port machinery to ensure the safety of transportation equipment.

Improve the security risk prevention and regulatory system. Improve the dual prevention mechanism of safety production risk classification control and accident hazard investigation and governance, and establish a comprehensive safety risk list. Promote enterprises to implement the main responsibility of safety production and the construction of safety production standardization, and strengthen pre - and in-process safety supervision. Continuously strengthen safety supervision in key water areas, ports, ships, and time periods, and enhance joint prevention and control in important areas such as hazardous chemical transportation, water passenger transportation, and urban ferry transportation. Improve emergency management mechanisms and plans, incorporate them into the urban emergency plan system, strengthen the construction of professional rescue and emergency management talent teams, support the development of social rescue forces, and enhance public water transport safety literacy and awareness.

Enhance safety supervision and emergency response capabilities. Establish and improve the emergency rescue command system for inland waterway transportation, perfect the layout planning and construction of water traffic safety supervision and rescue systems, strengthen the promotion and application of new equipment and technologies such as drones and underwater robots, enhance the construction of core capabilities such as dynamic perception and early warning of water traffic, rapid and effective rescue of human lives, and disposal of ship oil spills and hazardous chemicals. Accelerate the normalized application of the Beidou navigation system for the Yangtze River and Xijiang shipping routes, gradually covering inland rivers throughout the country. Upgrade and improve the emergency command system for waterway transportation at all levels, strengthen effective monitoring of "four categories" key ships, key water areas, and key waterways.

（6） Strengthen innovation to lead advanced shipping technology support.

Strengthen forward-looking basic research on the construction and maintenance of important infrastructure. Promote key technologies such as waterway regulation, construction, maintenance, and ecological restoration of navigation structures, as well as research and development of inland waterway safety control and emergency search and rescue technologies based on ship shore coordination. Promote the construction of the Safe Century Quality Project. Develop intelligent infrastructure design and construction technology that integrates high-energy and low-energy materials, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and prefabricated technology. Develop monitoring and early warning technologies for maintaining and improving the service performance of infrastructure. Breakthrough in the maintenance technology of multi line infrastructure for the shared network of inland ports and waterways, which integrates space, functionality, and lifespan.

Promote the independent research and application of major core equipment. Gradually promote the research and construction of a new generation of automated terminals. Research and application of port cargo collection and distribution equipment such as autonomous driving trucks, rail platforms, and large unmanned aerial vehicles under the end-to-end network cloud architecture. Conduct research on the core technology of intelligent shipping with the goal of ship autonomous driving, intelligent organization, and collaborative scheduling. Develop ship salvage technology and equipment under conditions of rapids, turbid water, and deep water.

Realize efficient and convenient intelligent comprehensive information services. Promote the construction of a comprehensive information service platform based on cloud network interaction, including electronic navigation charts, ship gate scheduling, and port and waterway infrastructure operation and maintenance. Utilize information technologies such as big data and blockchain to build a port economic ecosystem that integrates multiple resource elements. Accelerate the deployment of new generation mobile communication and satellite communication (Beidou) in key water areas, navigation structures, and ports.

（7） Inherit and promote the rich and profound maritime culture with a long history.

Create a carrier of new era shipping culture. Support the construction of cultural belts and landscape corridors along the Yangtze River, and strengthen the comprehensive protection and development of the historical, cultural, and cultural landscapes of the ancient canal. Improve relevant facilities, equipment, and management systems, and encourage the development of science popularization education and experiential tours.

Establish a sound shipping culture service and product system. Build an influential, high-quality, and meaningful brand of shipping museums. Open up shipping cultural tourism routes such as coastal waterfront, historical and cultural, and quality business, develop the economy of cruise ships and yachts, and form a world-class high-quality shipping cultural and leisure brand. Promote the application of online ticket sales and electronic boat tickets for water passenger transportation, promote the integration of inland waterway passenger transportation and tourism development, and promote intermodal transportation with other modes of passenger transportation.

Consolidate and develop the achievements of spiritual civilization in the industry. Integrate resources such as large-scale shipping forums, exhibitions, festivals, and sailing days, fully utilize traditional and emerging media to innovate and organize shipping culture promotion activities, and build an international shipping culture event with global influence. Improve professional ethics standards, civilized service standards, and continuously enhance the level of industry civilization.

（8） Build a modern industry governance system that is jointly built, governed, and shared by multiple parties.

Deepen the reform of inland waterway transportation authority. Consolidate and improve the administrative system reform of Yangtze River shipping, and promote the research and improvement of shipping management systems and mechanisms such as the Xijiang shipping mainline. Improve the comprehensive administrative law enforcement system and mechanism for transportation, strengthen regional cooperation and joint law enforcement, and resolutely crack down on illegal sand mining and ship overloading in waterways. Promote the establishment of long-term bilateral or multilateral exchange and cooperation mechanisms with neighboring countries.

Improve the regulatory and standard system. Research and promote the formulation of laws and regulations such as shipping laws, timely promote the revision of industry laws and regulations such as port laws and waterway laws, and further improve supporting regulations, rules, and standard specifications. Promote the construction of rule of law government departments and the reform of administrative approval systems. Develop a standard system for inland waterway transportation that reflects high-quality development, strengthen the implementation and supervision of standards. Further reform and improve the industry statistical system.

Coordinate the construction, management, and maintenance of infrastructure. Improve the tracking and analysis mechanism for normalized maintenance and management of inland waterways, as well as the market-oriented mechanism for dredging and maintenance. Strengthen investment in infrastructure maintenance and operational management. Protect waterway resources in accordance with the law, strengthen the safety supervision of waterway regulation buildings, navigation buildings, and navigation hub dams within the scope of waterway and waterway protection, and enhance the evaluation and review of the impact of navigation conditions on cross river blocking buildings.

Build a modern market system that is unified, open, competitive, and orderly. Strengthen government monitoring and information guidance of the shipping market, and improve the new industry regulatory mechanism based on credit. Fully leverage the role of industry associations, alliances, and other organizations to guide the spontaneous and healthy development of the industry.

Strengthen the construction of talent team. Improve the system and mechanism for talent team building, enhance the sense of honor, achievement, and career attractiveness of industry practitioners. Continuously improve the mechanism of talent cultivation, technology industry university research application, and create a favorable environment for the development of industry talents. Strengthen the cultivation of application-oriented seafarers, coordinate and share high-quality education and training resources for inland waterway seafarers, and improve the career promotion channels for seafarers.

3、 Guarantee measures

（1） Strengthen organizational leadership.

Integrate the leadership of the Party throughout the entire process of promoting the improvement of shortcomings and high-quality development of inland waterway transportation. Promote local governments to formulate high-quality development plans for inland waterway transportation in their respective regions, refine and improve task measures, and clarify division of responsibilities.

（2） Strengthen policy support.

Coordinate the use of central and local fiscal funds, strengthen the construction and maintenance of public welfare infrastructure such as waterways, and provide financial support in key areas such as high-quality development and serving people's livelihood needs. Strengthen coordination with departments such as natural resources, ecological environment, water conservancy, agriculture and rural areas, and strive for policy support in land use, forest use, environmental impact assessment, and comprehensive utilization of water resources.

（3） Strengthen demonstration and guidance.

We will carry out pilot demonstrations for new development models and formats such as green water transportation, shipping cultural services, and intelligent services, timely summarize and promote experiences, and scientifically guide the high-quality development of inland waterway transportation.