Summary：Zhanjiang in Guangdong province is expected to strengthen its position as a national transport hub this year on ...

Zhanjiang in Guangdong province is expected to strengthen its position as a national transport hub this year on the back of major projects, local officials said.

The last year of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, 2020 is crucial for Zhanjiang to achieve its goal of becoming a national comprehensive transportation hub, said Jiang Jianjun, mayor of the city and a deputy to the National People's Congress.

In 2020, the city plans to implement 46 major transportation projects, with a total investment of 15.86 billion yuan ($2.23 billion). It will continue to focus on improving the construction of a transportation network connecting the Hainan Free Trade Port and city clusters in the Beibu Gulf covering Guangdong and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In addition, construction on the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang high-speed railway will start this year.

The 400-kilometer-long high-speed railway is expected to be completed in 2024. After completion, it will slash the travel time from Zhanjiang to Guangzhou to just one and a half hours, and becoming the first high-speed railway allowing trains to travel as fast as 350 kilometers per hour in western Guangdong province.

"The year of 2019 was a milestone for Zhanjiang's transportation construction, and the city has made historic breakthroughs in sectors of investment, project construction and planning," Jiang said.

Zhanjiang's overall plan for 2016-30 in terms of railway development was approved by the Guangdong provincial government and China State Railway Group in July 2019, making the city the third in the province to become a planned national comprehensive transportation hub.

"Transportation used to be a bottleneck for Zhanjiang's development," Jiang said. However, the operation of the first high-speed railway from Shenzhen to Zhanjiang in 2018 and the approval of the plan have given the city impetus to increase its development, he added.

As the status of a national transportation hub has been recognized, Zhanjiang has transformed from being a small player in transportation to an important player in supporting the country to develop an open economy and a marine economy, the mayor said.

This year, Zhanjiang will continue to ramp up efforts in establishing itself as a modern transportation hub revolving around ports construction, transportation network expansion and aviation services, according to the city plan.

The city will promote building new channels for ports and wharves in a bid to enhance participation in the construction of the new sea-land corridor in western China. These efforts include accelerating the construction of functional wharves such as the Donghai Island port area for general cargo, the Xiashan port area for common purposes and the Baoman port area for containers.

For urban transportation, the city will increase efforts in its construction of highways and a highway system extending to Zhanjiang Bay, the city's downtown area and surrounding areas, according to Jiang.