A comprehensive national transportation network plan was recently issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council -- China's Cabinet -- covering highways, expressways, high-speed railways, waterways and aviation networks.

The Shandong Port Group, or SPG -- a key ports operator and a major logistics player in North China -- is helping to implement the Belt and Road Initiative. It is actively helping to synergize the national strategy of serving the country and the BRI and is taking East-West two-way economic cooperation and the link between the land and sea as its development path.

Last year, SPG's cargo throughput topped 1.4 billion tons, with year-on-year growth of 7.5 percent, an annual freight volume growth that ranked it first in the world. Its container throughput exceeded 30 million twenty-foot equivalent units or TEUs, up 6.5 percent year-on-year, the third highest in the world and the second highest in China.

In addition, SPG signed a strategic framework agreement on Feb 20 with Anhui Provincial Port & Shipping Group in Hefei, the capital of East China's Anhui province, to build world-class ports.

SPG plans to team up with the Anhui ports operator in order to serve key national strategies, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt -- to leverage their respective strengths and to step up the implementation of port-related cooperation projects.