Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:

What progress has been made to ensure a smooth flow of logistics during the Spring Festival travel season? What efforts will be made to ensure efficient and orderly transportation of medical and livelihood supplies? Thank you.

Xu Chengguang:

Thanks for your questions. I will answer them.

For this year's Spring Festival travel rush, we have made full preparations for organizing the passenger transport and ensuring the smooth flow of transport and logistics, which will be coordinated and managed respectively by the Spring Festival travel season work team under the State Council inter-agency task force for COVID-19 response and the office of the leading group for the smooth flow of logistics under the State Council. In terms of transport and logistics, transportation arteries and logistics microcirculation in China are generally smooth. Key logistics hubs are running steadily. Major logistics indicators are stable and improving. The transportation of key supplies is safe and orderly. We are fully capable of meeting the transportation needs of supplies.

But at the same time, the public demand for medical supplies such as COVID-19 medicines, antigen detection reagents, masks and vaccines has surged recently. Given this situation, the office of the leading group for the smooth flow of logistics under the State Council, which considers it a priority, is strengthening overall deployment and coordination and sparing no effort to ensure the smooth transportation of medical supplies.

First, we need to connect supply and demand to ensure a timely response to demand. We will track the epidemic changes, monitor the transportation needs of key medical supplies across the country, and urge and guide local transport authorities to contact the 286 key enterprises ensuring medical supplies designated by the medical supplies group under the State Council inter-agency task force for COVID-19 response, taking the initiative to provide them with the needed services and make differentiated policies. For example, we have guided SF Express Group and China Post Group to customize their logistics plans to guarantee the daily transportation of 16,000 orders of Lianhua Qingwen capsules produced by Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical, achieving "zero backlogs" in medical transportation and distribution. We have also promptly coordinated and solved the transportation problems of medical supplies for Fengyuan Pharmaceutical in Anhui and Fenhe Pharmaceutical in Shanxi.

The second is to ensure efficient traffic and smooth and orderly logistics. The transportation of medical materials requires a higher level of timeliness and precision than that of general materials. We have set up a daily scheduling system to enhance dispatching in key provinces and key logistics enterprises, ensuring the timely delivery of medical supplies. We will strictly implement the policy of giving priority to free passage on expressways for vehicles transporting COVID-19 vaccines to ensure safe and efficient deliveries.

The third is to smooth the end circulation to ensure timely delivery of materials. In some cities, a shortage of front-line couriers has caused poor delivery at the end of logistics. We have solved such problems as quickly as we can. We immediately carried out dispatch and deployment, urged timely recruitment of delivery personnel, encouraged businesses to open as many outlets as possible, prioritized the delivery of backlogged medical and prevention and control supplies, and worked hard to smooth the final delivery of medical materials.

Next, we will continue to focus on the transportation needs of medical supplies, promote the connection between supply and demand, ensure efficient passage, smooth the final delivery stage, and ensure efficient and orderly transportation of key materials. First, we will make every effort to meet the demands of transporting medical materials. We will guide key logistics enterprises to strengthen coordination with medical supplies production, operation and distribution enterprises to ensure timely and full response to transportation needs for medical supplies. Second, we will strengthen the transportation organization and capacity scheduling. We will guide large key logistics and transportation enterprises to formulate support plans for transporting medical supplies during the Spring Festival holiday, and encourage front-line employees to continue to work during the holiday by arranging staff rotation and off-peak leave, and issuing subsidies, overtime pay and other measures, so as to ensure that the transportation of medical materials is not interrupted during the holiday. Third, we will make every effort to smooth the final delivery service network. We will give full play to the role of large key postal express enterprises, and guide them to improve their contingency plans during the holiday. We will strengthen regional labor deployment, and pay close attention to the staffing of employees in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas. With these efforts, we will ensure the uninterrupted transportation of medical supplies during the Spring Festival travel rush.

Transportation and logistics are linked to people's livelihoods and are related to the overall stability of growth, employment and prices. While ensuring transportation services for key medical supplies, we will also continue to ensure the smooth flow of the "main artery" and "microcirculation." We will coordinate the transportation of key materials like energy and grain, and daily necessities like vegetables, fruit, meat, poultry, eggs and milk this winter and spring, so as to better serve the overall situation of economic and social development and ensure people's living needs and a warm winter.

Here, I would again like to remind drivers that if they encounter any obstacles during transportation, or if relevant supply enterprises face difficulties in logistics and transportation, they are welcome to call the local or national hotlines. We will coordinate services to see that their difficulties are addressed.