Zhangjiagang Port becomes magnet for local development
Jul-01-2014 By : fcccadmin
With 127 berths and 33 Fortune 500 companies, Zhangjiagang port is becoming the growth engine of the local area. The port, in Zhangjiagang city in Jiangsu province, is built on the lower reaches of the Yangtze river. It handled 260 million tons of cargo in 2013 and has an import and export volume of 50.9 million tons. Today the port accounts for more than 60% of Zhangjiagang’s total revenue. Zhangjiagang used to be one of the poorest counties in Suzhou city in Jiangsu province before it became the main port in the area and the only free trade zone in Jiangsu. Zhangjiagang’s GDP reached CNY214.5 billion in 2013. One of the local businesses, the Shagang Group, is listed as a world Fortune 500 enterprise. Zhangjiagang is a relatively small city in China with a population of 1.54 million. It is the only port for importing finished automobiles in Jiangsu, with total imports and exports of 20,000 units in 2013. The port also stores and transports steel, grain, oil, coal and chemical products. It was ranked third for importing and exporting wood in China. Free trade zones and industrial parks in the city include the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone, the Yangtze River International Chemical Industrial Park, the Yangtze River International Metallurgy Industrial Park and the Zhangjiagang Logistic Park. Today the port has 52 container routes and maintains trading relationships with 473 port cities in 71 countries and regions, the China Daily reports.
Qinzhou banks on new Maritime Silk Road
By : fcccadmin
Qinzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has been revitalized by the central government’s plan to develop the “Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century”. The port city was the starting point of the ancient Maritime Silk Road thousands of years ago. Qinzhou is a major conduit to Southeast Asia, with a national-level bonded port area and a Malaysian industrial park. “The central government should step up its funding and policy support for Qinzhou port if it really wants to boost connectivity with Southeast Asia,” said Pei Yun, Deputy Director of the Port Administration Bureau. “Improving the port is the main priority for Qinzhou,” Huang Lihe, an official from Qinzhou’s Development and Reform Commission said. Up until a few years ago, the port could not handle more than 1 million tons. But when China began deepening its integration into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the port’s handling capacity increased to 60 million tons and 600,000 standard containers last year. Qinzhou port looks forward to building more 300,000-ton berths to allow bigger ships to dock. During a visit to the city last year, Premier Li Keqiang said Qinzhou port should be handling at least 10 million TEU a year. Li pointed out that the vast hinterland of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces provides the port with huge growth potential. An application to build a free trade zone (FTZ) has been submitted to the central government. Qinzhou port’s four overseas lines-to Hong Kong, Singapore, Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Haiphong in Vietnam-all opened within the past three years. A new line to Kuantan in Malaysia will open this year. With cheap land and low taxes and labor costs, Qinzhou has attracted several large state-owned petroleum enterprises, along with petrochemical industries, thermal power and papermaking enterprises from Indonesia to its port area in the past decade, the China Daily reports.
Proposal for new Silk Road launched
May-27-2014 By : agxadmin
Reconstruction of the ancient Silk Road through Central Asia to Europe would create the world’s longest project. The 6,000-kilometer-long dream envisioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping would open a new frontier for Chinese development. The Silk Road proposal “has attracted global attention as a framework covering a wide range of issues,” said Pan Guang, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Society of Middle East Studies. The initiative involves both overland and maritime routes. The land route would generally follow the Silk Road of 2,000 years ago. It would connect the city of Xian in northwest China with Venice, where Marco Polo began his legendary voyage to the Orient. The 21st century incarnation would pass through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Romania and Germany. “The New Silk Road will enable trade to flow easily east and west just as it did centuries ago,” Erlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in a recent article about improved regional economic integration. Trade made the original Silk Road flourish for 1,600 years, and trade is expected to underpin the development of the New Silk Road. Investment opportunities are expected in infrastructure projects such as energy pipelines, highways and rail links. China’s New Silk Road concept also involves sea routes connecting ports in Indonesia, Thailand and India. Some initiatives that help define the New Silk Road concept are already under way. Chengdu started freight rail services to Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland last year. The high-speed train, with a capacity of 41 containers, takes 14 days – five days longer than air freight but 25% cheaper.
South China Sea hub ‘urgent’
Mar-27-2014 By : agxadmin
Yan Kai, Deputy Director of the China Ship Scientific Research Center affiliated with the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, said a major transport hub needs to be built in the South China Sea, which lacks sufficient infrastructure. The absence of a hub is hindering economic development in the region. China’s Nansha Islands are located in the South China Sea more than 1,000 km from the mainland and have vast oil and natural gas reserves. Yan pointed out that limited infrastructure has made it “extremely difficult” for people to live and work in the South China Sea area. There is only one military airport and one port on Yongxing island, which is the largest island in the South China Sea at 2 million square km and administered by Sansha in Hainan province. Sansha, China’s youngest and southernmost city in Hainan province, was established in 2012 to govern more than 200 small islands, sand banks and reefs in the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands. Yongxing island, which is part of the Xisha islands, has about 1,000 residents and a military garrison. But Li Guoqiang, Deputy Director of the Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said such infrastructure should be built on the larger Hainan island and not on more remote small islands. “The ecological environment in the region is so vulnerable that we cannot sacrifice it for economic interests,” he said.
Cities seek hub status on Maritime Silk Road
By : agxadmin
China’s coastal provinces are trying to become the key hubs along the new “Maritime Silk Road”, a national initiative aimed at strengthening cooperation with the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Fujian is one of the areas that has been actively engaged in developing its ports, particularly the one in Quanzhou, a city recognized by UNESCO as the starting point of the maritime road, said Zheng Xincong, Mayor of Quanzhou. Improving the port’s customs clearance is high on the agenda of the local government. With current cargo capacity of over 1.7 million TEU, Quanzhou port has embarked on a large infrastructure development program to increase total capacity. The port has opened about 130 shipping routes, establishing trade with 28 countries and regions. Xia Guoji, a Quanzhou Port Authority official, suggested that the Quanzhou government collect documents about the port’s Shihu area to submit to the central government for approval as a free trade port. “A free-trade port that will offer great convenience for trade and investment plays a crucial role in building a modern ‘Maritime Silk Road’, and the Shihu area, which did well in container service, is the ideal area for free trade port policies,” Xia said. Besides Fujian, Guangxi and Hainan are also making efforts to develop a maritime industry. Zheng Junjian, Secretary General of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat, said this year’s expo, which will be held in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, will highlight exhibitions and investment projects that involve maritime cooperation. The Yangpu economic development zone on the northwestern coast of Hainan province has the potential to turn into a logistical and industrial base for the Maritime Silk Road. The Yangpu zone has one 35,000-ton berth, one 20,000-ton berth and three 3,000-ton berths, with three 20,000-ton berths under construction.
- KURT VANDEPUTTE (UMICORE) APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE FLANDERS-CHINA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (FCCC)
- Webinar: “Knowing Your Chinese Partner” – May 26, 2021, 10 am – 12 am
- EMA starts rolling review of CoronaVac, WHO approves Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use
- The Global Times warns not to politicize the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)
- Hainan to become biggest duty-free market in the world