The Development of China’s Logistics Industry during the Past 40 Years of Reform and Opening Up and the Outlook of That

（China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing，Beijing100045，China）

Abstract：Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China，the development of China’s logistics industry can be divided into two phases：the first one is the centrally planed economy from 1949 to 1978，and the characteristics of the less developed logistics industry during this period of time are high power centralization，the segmented management，governments’ power in pricing，the integration of government administration with enterprises，large and all inclusive and small and all inclusive；and the second one is the market system with Chinese characteristics from 1978 to today，and during this period of time，the logistics industry has been rapidly developed. During the past 40 years of reform and opening up，the development of China’s logistics industry can be further divided into such three phases as the exploring and starting phase from 1978 to 2001，the rapid development phase from 2002 to 2012，and the transformation and upgrading phase from 2013 to 2020. And these three phases reflect the historical evolution of China’s logistic industry from learning from and introduction to independent innovational development，from the weak logistic country to big and then to strong logistic country，and from the traditional one to the modern one. Facing new opportunities and challenges in the new era，to better promote the healthy development of China’s logistics industry and realize the target of being a leader in logistics，we have to do a better job in：first，reconsidering logistics and supply chain，reenergizing and upgrading the traditional logistics industry with the help of informatization，modern logistics and modern supply chain，and improving people’s consciousness in terms of logistics and supply chain；second，establishing the new idea of innovation，coordination，green，open and sharing，integrating these into the development of China’s logistics，and using this to guide the development of China’s logistics industry；third，improving，perfecting and strengthening the function of logistics in the supply-side structural reform，and promoting the transformation and upgrading of logistic industry；fourth，correctly dealing with the relation among market，governments，industrial associations，and enterprises，and promoting the development of China’ s logistics with the help of market forces；and fifth，taking supply as the important action point of supply-side structural reform， and the important carrier to lead globalization and improve competitiveness，and making it to be the nex“t place with a draught”of China’s economic and social transformation and upgrading.

Key words：40 years of reform and opening up；China’s logistics industry；reform and development；opportunity and challenge