[Explanation] At 9:00 a.m. on August 28, the backbone project of the new western land-sea channel - the Pinglu Canal construction mobilization meeting was held at the Madao Junction in Jiuzhou Town, Lingshan County, Qinzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, marking the official start of construction of the Pinglu Canal stage.

　　[Explanation] Li Xiaopeng, Minister of Transportation, said in his speech at the conference that the construction of the Pinglu Canal can be described as the right time and place.

　　[Concurrent] Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng

　　The Pinglu Canal is a networking project that optimizes and improves the national water transport network and accelerates the construction of a national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network.

　　[Explanation] Liu Ning, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Autonomous Region, said that the Pinglu Canal is the backbone of the new land-sea passage in the west, which is of strategic significance for promoting the development of Guangxi and the southwest.

　　[Concurrent] Liu Ning, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

　　After the canal is completed and opened to navigation, it will directly open up the shortest, most economical and most convenient sea passages in Guangxi inland and southwest and northwest regions of my country, which can effectively solve the problem of unimpeded shipping on the Xijiang River and greatly improve the transportation capacity of the new western land-sea passage.

　　[Commentary] Liu Ning said that after the Pinglu Canal is completed and opened to navigation, it will promote Guangxi and the southwest region to continue to deepen economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN and the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (RCEP) countries, speed up the integration into the construction of a China-ASEAN community of shared future, and more Good service builds a new development pattern.

The construction of the Pinglu Canal has merit in contemporary times and benefits in the future.

　　[Explanation] The Pinglu Canal is a river-sea connection project between the main stream of the Xijiang River and the Beibu Gulf. The starting point is the Pingtang River estuary in the Xijin Reservoir District, Hengzhou City, Nanning, and it enters the Beibu Gulf through Luwu Town, Lingshan County, Qinzhou City, along the Qinjiang River, with a total length of about 135 kilometers. After completion, it will shorten the voyage to the sea in the middle and upper reaches of the Xijiang River by about 560 kilometers.

The construction content of the Pinglu Canal project mainly includes waterway engineering, shipping hub engineering, cross-river facility engineering along the line and supporting engineering.

The waterway grade is grade I inland river, the estimated total investment of the project is 72.73 billion yuan, and the construction period is 54 months.

　　Zhang Guangquan, Chen Yanyou and Wang Yizhao reported by Wang Weichen from Qinzhou, Guangxi

Responsible editor: [Li Ji]