BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- China improved the transportation sector through pushing infrastructure construction, reinforcing weak links and lowering logistics costs, Vice Minister of Transport Dai Dongchang said on Tuesday.

China's fixed-asset investment (FAI) in transport amounted to nearly 3.25 trillion yuan (about 458.31 billion U.S. dollars) last year, with the FAI in railways, highways and waterways, and aviation reaching 802.9 billion yuan, 2.35 trillion yuan and 96.9 billion yuan, respectively, Dai said at a press conference.

The massive investment has covered major projects including Beijing Daxing International Airport and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway, which have all seen solid progress in the reporting period, according to Dai.

Meanwhile, road and port charges were reduced to boost multimodal transportation to lower corporate burdens. In 2019, about 80.4 billion yuan of highway and waterway logistics costs were exempted, the official said.

The ministry has also been promoting new transportation models. By the end of April, the ministry had issued more than 950,000 online ride-hailing vehicle licenses and 2.08 million driver's licenses, while developing new technologies like smart highways and big data services, said Dai.

(Photo: Agencies)