BEIJING: China proposed a series of measures on Tuesday (Sept 22) to deepen global cooperation on sustainable transport, including establishing a regular multilateral consultation mechanism, launching an international green shipping corridor alliance and developing a zero-carbon fuel bunkering network.
The proposed measures were outlined by Shohrat Zakir, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, at the opening of the Global Sustainable Transport Forum 2026 in Beijing.
The two-day forum, organised by the Ministry of Transport, has brought together nearly 800 participants from governments, international organizations and businesses.
Zakir said geopolitical conflicts, disruptions to major maritime routes and growing pressure on international logistics and supply chains have made closer global transport cooperation increasingly urgent.
China is also ready to share its experience in applying artificial intelligence to transport and work with other countries to make logistics networks more resilient, he added.
Chinese Minister of Transport Liu Wei later outlined China's progress over the past five years and its priorities for future cooperation.
Around 180 million passenger trips are made across China each day, while more than 90 per cent of the population can reach a high-speed railway station, an expressway or an airport within an hour, Liu said.
For countries along the route, the corridor is increasingly seen not simply as a transport link, but as part of a broader effort to strengthen trade and economic ties across Eurasia.
Kazakhstan's First Deputy Prime Minister Nurlybek Nalibayev said railway freight between Kazakhstan and China increased by 8.3 per cent in the first half of this year, while Kazakhstan's rail exports to China rose by more than 18 per cent.
Zou Jiayi, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said the bank had approved more than US$18 billion for transport projects over the past decade. Projects approved through 2025 are expected to build, upgrade or maintain more than 52,800km of roads and railways and improve transport conditions for about 418 million people.
"Transport corridors cannot stop at national borders," she said, adding that ports, railways, roads and logistics platforms create greater value when their standards and systems work together.
Angola's Minister of Transport Ricardo Viegas D'Abreu said his country was moving from rebuilding individual transport facilities toward developing an integrated multimodal network linking southern and central Africa with global markets.
At the same time, several speakers pointed to the cost and complexity of the green transition.
Singapore's Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow said lower-carbon aviation and shipping would depend not only on new fuels, but also on common standards, supporting infrastructure and commercially viable business models.
For island economies, the challenge is even more immediate.
Seychelles' Transport Minister Veronique Laporte said about 95 percent of goods consumed in the island nation were imported, while it received around 400,000 tourists a year, nearly four times its population. If air or maritime links are disrupted, the country has no land-based alternative. - China Daily/ANN
