The inland waterway of China's Pearl River is expected to see its freight volume exceed 1 billion tonnes this year, said Wang Jianhua, director of the Pearl River Administration of Navigational Affairs under the Ministry of Transport.

Statistics show that the river's inland freight volume was 952 million tonnes in 2018.

Wang said through a high-level coordination mechanism, Guangdong, Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou are jointly formulating policies and plans to allow Pearl River transportation to play a greater role in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Lu Yaxing, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial transport department, said the Pearl River waterway connects southwest China to Hong Kong and Macao. Guangdong will speed up the construction of major transportation channels of the river.

With ports in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai as the key points, Guangdong will vigorously develop river-sea combined transport and container transport and promote the construction of river-sea and water-rail combined transport, Lu said.