China, ASEAN seek to promote port cooperation

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Oct 2007

Transportation ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China pledged to work together for closer port cooperation at a forum here on Sunday. The two-day China-ASEAN Port Development and Cooperation Forum, themed "strengthening regional cooperation and promoting common development", is a key event of the ongoing Fourth China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) held in Nanning of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China. Some 450 corporate executives of port administration, shipping, logistics, shipbuilding and repair, port equipment manufacturing, harbor investors, and experts and scholars met at the forum to exchange views on the impact of the international shipping industry on regional port cooperation and logistics, as well as the development strategy and financing of ports and port cities. A joint declaration on China-ASEAN port development and cooperation is likely to be passed at the forum, along with a study report on cooperation among ports in the Pan Beibu Gulf Rim, an area surrounded by south China's Guangdong and Hainan provinces and Guangxi, as well as six ASEAN members. A number of port investment contracts will also be signed before the forum closes on Monday.  To underline the theme, a large model of an ocean liner has been created in the open-air plaza outside the international exhibition center in Nanning, the permanent venue of CAEXPO. Nine of the 10-nation ASEAN, excluding Laos, are maritime countries. Port economies play an important role in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam. Guangxi has poured nearly 10 billion yuan (1.3 billion U.S. dollars) to build infrastructure and improve service capacity of ports along the Beibu Gulf. It is also involved in many cooperative programs with ports in ASEAN countries.  The port forum is one of the nine forums or conferences held during this years' CAEXPO, covering a wide range of topics including electric power development, poverty reduction, and product quality supervision. The ASEAN, established on Aug. 8, 1967 in Bangkok, now groups Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia.