The reporter learned from the Yichang Municipal Bureau of Transport that in the first half of the year, the city completed a total road freight turnover of 5,934,952,900 ton-kilometers, with a year-on-year growth of 31.59%. This is the second fastest growth rate in the province and is 12.6 percentage points higher than the provincial average.

　　Since the beginning of this year, the municipal transport departments have strengthened the management of the waterway lightering market, done an excellent job in maintaining the ro-ro market, accelerated the construction of port projects, given full play to the cluster effect of key port areas, and extensively excavated the source of goods for coal transportation from the north to the south and combined transport of the railway and waterway. They will accelerate the establishment of a state-level multimodal transport demonstration project at Baiyang Port and two provincial-level multimodal transport demonstration projects at Zicheng Port and Yaojia Port. They will also accelerate the development of two state-level boutique waterway tourism and passenger transport routes. At the same time, they have printed brochures for promoting policies on relieving difficulties and providing awards and subsidies to enterprises with an annual operating income of more than 20 million yuan (hereinafter referred to as the 20-million enterprises), conducted intensive visits and research, actively promoted provincial and municipal award and subsidy policies and provided timely policy explanations to further stimulate road freight enterprises’ enthusiasm for increasing their operating income to 20 million yuan and above and create favorable public opinions.

　　Focusing on the cultivation goal of 20-million road freight enterprises, the transport departments have taken multiple measures. They have guided all local 20-million road freight enterprises to apply for provincial road freight development awards and subsidy funds of 6.2 million yuan. They have closely coordinated with development and reform departments and financial departments and facilitated the revision of the award and subsidy measures for the development of the service industry. Enterprises joining the 20-million club for the first time and enterprises with a turnover growth rate of over 20% will be rewarded with 50,000 RMB. They have also collaborated with departments of housing and urban and rual development, urban management, economy and information technology and other departments, and set up a leading group for the cultivation of 20-million road freight enterprises, where the head of the various departments take the lead, and the members conduct on-site supervision and guidance. A number of companies have basically met the requirements for entry into the 20-million club. (Reporter/He Guanying, Correspondent/ Wang Yinhuan & Zhou Chili)