A high-level conference on advancing the "Shipping Zhejiang" initiative was held in Hangzhou on November 27, aiming to reduce logistics costs and promote high-quality development of inland waterway transport. Several successful "road-to-water" transportation restructuring projects were signed during the event.
2025 marks the inaugural year of the "Shipping Zhejiang" initiative. The province has formulated a plan for its inland waterway network, featuring a "5 vertical, 8 horizontal, and 10 trunk" layout with 1,400 km of Class II waterways. A 2.0 version of technical guidelines for high-grade inland waterways has also been released, emphasizing land conservation through technological innovation.
Notable progress includes breakthroughs in sea-river intermodal transport expansion, accelerated completion of the Oujiang waterway, regular container sea-river operations in Wenzhou-Lishui, and Quzhou Port's projected throughput exceeding 10 million tons.
Despite Zhejiang's dominant position in maritime transport - home to the world's busiest port (Ningbo-Zhoushan) and ranking fourth nationally in high-grade inland waterways (1,600 km) - the province is prioritizing inland waterway development for several reasons:
1. Cost efficiency: Inland water transport costs are just 1/7 of road and 1/3 of rail transport, offering significant advantages for exporting commodities from Yiwu and textiles from Shaoxing. 2. Environmental benefits: Water transport generates only 1/6 the carbon emissions of road and 2/3 of rail transport per unit of cargo. 3. Capacity advantages: A single Class III waterway can handle 1,000-ton vessels equivalent to four highways' capacity while reducing heavy truck traffic by 30%.
Zhejiang has set ambitious targets including "100 million tons shifted to water transport" and "four-fold growth." From January to October 2024, the province invested 33.82 billion yuan in water transport (up 16.1% YoY), handled 360 million tons of inland port cargo (up 9.3% YoY), and 1.93 million TEUs (up 14% YoY), with inland container routes doubling to 84.
In other regional developments: - Beijing unveiled an AI+audiovisual industry development plan (2025-2029) to create an internationally influential hub. - The Chinese Academy of Sciences established an Industrial AI Research Institute in Nanjing. - Chongqing accelerated its "Xinjiang Computing to Chongqing" project as part of factor market reforms. - Harbin Institute of Technology launched a Zhengzhou research institute through local government collaboration. - China's largest desert-base clean energy project (194.4 GW capacity) commenced in Qinghai. - The NDRC addressed concerns about humanoid robot industry bubbles while acknowledging its rapid growth (>50% annual expansion). - ASEAN surpassed the EU as Zhejiang's largest trading partner (710.6 billion yuan trade volume, +16.2% YoY). - China announced its first batch of 15 "pioneer-level" smart factories across key industries. - Several provincial leadership appointments were made in Hunan and Heilongjiang.