BEIJING - China will speed up piloting market access for intelligent connected vehicles and letting them run on the roads, authorities have said.

The country will promote the demonstration and application of autonomous driving and driverless vehicles in key areas including the Yangtze River Delta region and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to an action plan jointly released by the Ministry of Transport and the National Development and Reform Commission.

The plan, which outlines measures to improve transport efficiency and lower logistics costs, says the country will accelerate the construction of smart highways, waterways, ports and hubs, and promote the digital transformation and upgrading of transport infrastructure.

By 2027, the ratio of social logistics costs to GDP is expected to be reduced to around 13.5 percent, according to the plan.

By then, the national railway freight transport turnover will increase by about 10 percent compared with that in 2023, and the annual growth in volume of rail-water intermodal transport through the country's ports will stand at 15 percent on average, says the plan.

China's logistics efficiency continued to improve last year. The ratio of social logistics costs to GDP was 14.4 percent in 2023, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

In 2023, the cumulative volume of rail-water intermodal transport through the country's ports exceeded 11.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units of container cargo, up 11.7 percent year-on-year, according to data released at an international conference on port intermodal transportation held in Tianjin last month.