With the approval of the Central Military Commission (CMC), a pilot reform for the logistic section has been launched by the Jinan Area Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The reform is being carried out in accordance with the demands of China's military reform with the country's own characteristics.

Under the reform plan, the area command, in east China, will unify the logistic work for all combat units under the Field Army, Navy and Air Force, in order to provide logistic assurance for the army and improve the performance of the logistic section in a comprehensive way.

Over the past year, the PLA headquarters and other military areas concerned have been preparing for the logistic reform.

A spokesman of the PLA General Logistic Department told Xinhua that the reform to unify the logistics is "inevitable".

He disclosed that the reform was first tried in the 1950s. In 2000, logistic units at the area command level were unified. The reform cuts truck transportation by 60 million kilometers and saves over 10,000 tons of fuel annually, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2004)