China plans to get more freight moving along the Yangtze River to allow industries along the banks to prosper. The 6,418-kilometer river is already the world’s busiest freight waterway for the sixth straight year. About 1.5 billion tons of cargo were transported on the Yangtze and its tributaries last year. Two-fifths of China’s top 500 companies are located along the Yangtze and most of the industrial materials used by these companies are carried by river freight, said Tang Guanjun, Director of the Yangtze Navigation Administration under the Ministry of Transport. The Chinese government has set a goal to raise the country’s inland river freight capability to 3 billion tons per year by 2020. This means the average tonnage for cargo ships moving on the Yangtze is set to almost double to 1,600 tons by the end of 2015, Tang said.