China Unveils Logistics Network Plan to Cut Costs and Upgrade Rural Delivery

China's National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Transport have jointly issued an implementation plan for building a national logistics network. The policy sets a target to reduce total social logistics costs to 13.1 percent of GDP by 2030—a 0.8 percentage point drop from the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The plan outlines 17 key tasks across seven areas, focusing on expanding major freight corridors, upgrading rural three-tier delivery systems, advancing digital and green equipment, and channeling government and market financing into sector infrastructure.

Reducing total logistics expenses is a central pillar of Beijing's broader push to enhance industrial competitiveness and stimulate domestic circulation. By setting explicit cost-reduction benchmarks and prioritizing multi-modal transport and rural delivery nodes, the plan provides a multi-year roadmap for state and private capital deployment across physical and digital supply chain assets.

China's top economic planner and transport authorities have rolled out a comprehensive blueprint to modernize the country's freight and supply chain infrastructure, targeting a measurable reduction in economy-wide logistics overheads by the end of the decade. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Logistics Network Construction, according to reports by the People's Daily and Daily Economic News. Speaking at an NDRC press conference, commission spokesperson Li Chao stated that the initiative aims to shift logistics infrastructure from fragmented point-and-line deployments into a fully integrated and interconnected network. A central goal of the plan is to lower the ratio of total social logistics costs to gross domestic product (GDP) to 13.1 percent by 2030, which represents a reduction of 0.8 percentage points compared with levels projected for the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period. To achieve this, the document lays out 17 primary tasks organized around seven areas. These include strengthening major logistics hubs, improving corridor carrying capacity through multimodal transport, addressing urban-rural infrastructure imbalances, expanding international logistics links, accelerating green and digital equipment deployment, standardizing data sharing, and enhancing regulatory and policy support. Addressing both trunk corridors and terminal distribution is central to the strategy. On major routes, authorities plan to advance rail freight network projects, expedite missing segments on national highways such as along the Yangtze River corridor, upgrade heavily congested highway stretches with smart infrastructure, and back air freight carriers in establishing bases at airport-type logistics hubs. At the grass-roots level, the policy calls for building new public delivery stations or retrofitting existing facilities to complete a three-tier delivery system across counties, townships, and villages, facilitating faster movement of agricultural produce into cities and consumer goods into rural households. The plan also emphasizes funding reform, urging the coordination of government investment with market-based financial tools to attract private capital. Financial institutions are encouraged to provide loans with matching terms and reasonable costs to expand effective investment across the sector.