The Guangzhou municipal government will spend more than 8 billion yuan (US$964 million) over the next few years to expand and upgrade its port to help it preserve its status as an important logistics center in southern China and Asia.
The money will mainly be used to further improve the port's infrastructure, deepen marine routes, construct a new oil wharf and chemical dock and rebuild three 35,000-ton container berths, according to Huang Guosheng, director-general of the Guangzhou Harbor Bureau.
By 2005, the port's marine routes will be deepened from the existing 11.5 meters to 13 meters, allowing cargo ships carrying more than 50,000 tons to berth in the city.
The move also aims to build Guangzhou Port into one of the world's top 10 biggest export and import ports before 2005, playing a more important role in the foreign trade sector of the economically booming Guangdong Province, of which Guangzhou is the capital, Huang said yesterday.
In addition to its exports, Guangdong imports many raw materials, equipment and production lines.
By the end of 2005, Guangzhou's volume will amount to about 3.8 million containers and more than 6 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit) in 2010. The port is expected to handle 2.1 million containers this year.
"Expanding the Guangzhou Port is one the most important infrastructure projects in the city and also part of the municipal government's effort to make the city an international metropolis," Huang said.
To this end, Guangzhou will also import advanced equipment and technology and hire international experts to help operate the port, while conforming with international practices, Huang said.
Located at the mouth of the Pearl River, Guangzhou Port had reached a cargo handling capacity of 107.8 million tons in the first three quarters of the year, accounting for 85.2 per cent of its annual target, which was up 18.2 per cent from the same period last year.
Guangzhou is expected to handle more than 150 million tons of cargo this year.
The port has now opened more than 300 international marine lines to 80 nations and regions around the world.
Already one of the most important shipping hubs in China, the port is surrounded by the increasingly prosperous cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan and Jiangmen in the Pearl River Delta.
(China Daily November 20, 2002)
