On July 28, 2022, the "Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Expressway Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") was reviewed and approved by the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th People's Congress of the Autonomous Region and will be implemented on October 1 this year.

The "Regulations" reviewed and approved this time was drafted and revised with the participation of the 2021 Guangxi Tongwang Law Firm Expressway Regulations Legislation Team (hereinafter referred to as the "Expressway Legislation Team"), submitted to the Transportation Department of the Autonomous Region, and submitted to the Justice Department of the Autonomous Region by the Transportation Department of the Autonomous Region on June 29, 2021, as the version of the "Regulations" (Draft).

The Tongwang Expressway Legislation Team is led by Executive Director Wang Qianfeng, relying on the Guangxi Tongwang Law Firm Local Legislation Service Base and the Guangxi Tongwang Applied Jurisprudence Research Institute, and has been involved in the drafting and revision of the "Regulations" since 2020. Since being hired to provide drafting and revision services for the "Regulations", the expressway legislation team of this firm has participated in discussions and conducted legislative argumentation analysis for the successive argumentation and revision meetings of the "Regulations" (Draft), as well as legislative research inside and outside the region.

The "Regulations" embodies the following legislative highlights:

1. Promote the development of expressways by empowering them with new technologies such as big data, the Internet, and artificial intelligence, and promote the construction of smart expressways.

With the popularity of 5G technology and artificial intelligence, the use of new technologies to promote expressway construction will increasingly become a need for transportation and economic development. To this end, the "Regulations" provides a legal and institutional basis for the construction of smart transportation. This is not only the requirement of the "Highway Law" and the requirements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on a strong transportation country, but also further clarifies in the "Regulations" that the autonomous region encourages the development of expressway science and technology research at the autonomous region level, which also reflects the importance attached by the autonomous region and the hierarchical requirements of relevant system construction.

2. Accelerate the construction of electric vehicle charging facilities

In the service projects of service areas, in order to meet the travel needs of citizens' electric vehicles, the "Regulations" clearly stipulates the acceleration of the construction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure to achieve full coverage of charging infrastructure in expressway service areas, providing charging guarantee for electric vehicle expressway travel.

3. Clarify the construction of expressway ancillary facilities

In terms of expressway planning and management, at present, there are no special construction funds or relevant construction plans for expressway traffic law enforcement rooms and traffic management department rooms of public security organs, which is not conducive to the development of expressway management and law enforcement work. In addition, some enterprise representatives proposed that the supplementary construction of ancillary facilities should take into account the actual situation and should not be "one size fits all".

In response to these practical problems, the "Regulations" clarifies that for expressways that have been built and opened to traffic before implementation, the expressway operator shall be responsible for the supplementary construction if the failure to construct the facilities specified in the preceding paragraph seriously affects the normal operation and management of the expressway. At the same time, it clarifies that expressway ancillary facilities include expressway traffic safety law enforcement rooms, expressway management and administrative law enforcement rooms.

The promulgation of the "Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Expressway Regulations" will be the first local expressway regulation in Guangxi, which is of great significance and far-reaching impact on the planning, construction, operation, maintenance and management of expressways in Guangxi in the future. Tongwang's participation in the autonomous region's expressway legislation this time is a concrete manifestation of Tongwang's assistance to the autonomous region's local legislation. Tongwang lawyers will continue to serve the autonomous region's expressway legislative construction and consolidate the legal foundation for promoting the high-quality development of the autonomous region's transportation network.

Guangxi Local Legislation Research and Evaluation and Consulting Service Guangxi Tongwang Law Firm Base was jointly established by the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangxi Tongwang Law Firm in May 2018. It is a specialized institution engaged in local legislation research, evaluation and consulting services, and it is also the first local legislation research, evaluation and consulting service base established by a provincial people's congress in a law firm in China.

Guangxi Tongwang Applied Jurisprudence Research Institute is the first private applied jurisprudence research institute in China with independent legal personality approved and established by the Department of Justice of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Department of Civil Affairs of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It was initiated by Guangxi Tongwang Law Firm and relies on the law schools of famous universities inside and outside the region such as Guangxi University, Wuhan University, University of International Business and Economics, and Guangxi Normal University, and has a strong scientific research force to carry out applied jurisprudence research.

At present, Guangxi Tongwang Applied Jurisprudence Research Institute mainly takes serving the overall situation of Guangxi's economic construction and social development as its mission, combines with Guangxi's actual situation, and carries out theoretical and practical research on legal issues in various fields of judicial frontiers.