The 6th Maritime Silk Road Port International Cooperation Forum, one of the activities to mark the Maritime Day of China, opened in Ningbo City of Zhejiang Province, east China on Wednesday.
The forum, which highlighted the theme of "Coping with current changes, overcoming difficulties, and discussing related strategies", includes events such as high-level roundtables, themed saloons, and special conferences to showcase the academic achievements, the development experience and advanced technologies of port and shipping industry.
Recent years, Ningbo poured great efforts into world-class ports construction, resulting in significant development of local ports, which, in turn, brought up development of the city, said Peng Jiaxue, member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Ningbo Municipal Party Committee on the opening ceremony.
In 2020, the city's local GDP ranked the twelfth among all cities in China and its exports value ranked the fifth nationwide. Its international shipping center development index ranked among the top 10 around the world.
Gao Xingfu, deputy governor of the People's Government of Zhejiang Province, said that for twelve years in a row, cargo throughput of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port ranked the first around the world, making the port the only one worldwide with an annual cargo throughput of more than one billion tonnes.
Under the backdrop of routine and targeted COVID-19 epidemic response in China, Zhejiang Province mapped out a 5-year development blueprint for Ningbo-Zhoushan Port and is striving to craft the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port into an important global logistics hub, bulk commodity storage and transport base and characteristic shipping service base for the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, noted Gao.
During the opening ceremony, Global Port Reputation Report 2021 was officially released by Xinhua-run China Economic Information Service to present the international reputation of global ports in the post-epidemic era.
The forum was jointly organized by the People's Government of Ningbo Municipality, China Institute of Navigation, Department of Transport of Zhejiang Province and China Ports & Harbours Association.