Abstract : The 2024 Maritime Silk Road Port Cooperation Forum was held in Ningbo City, east China’s Zhejiang Province on Thursday, attracting more than 1,600 participants from nearly 40 countries and regions to attend.

Photo shows that the 2024 Maritime Silk Road Port Cooperation Forum was held in Ningbo City, east China's Zhejiang Province on June 27. (Source: Zhejiang Seaport Group)

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The 2024 Maritime Silk Road Port Cooperation Forum was held in Ningbo City, east China's Zhejiang Province on Thursday, attracting more than 1,600 participants from nearly 40 countries and regions to attend.

Themed on “enhancing the level of port and shipping services and building an open and integrated important port hub along the Belt and Road”, the forum focuses on trendy topics and development of international port and shipping industry.

Digitization and intelligent development can help port enterprises improve productivity, reduce operating costs and reduce carbon emissions by saving shipping time, said Santiago Garcia-Milà, deputy general manager of the Barcelona Port Authority.

Ahmed Ouaouch, chief operating officer of CMA CGM Asia Pacific, mentioned that cost-saving is a necessary step for a port to grow as a world leading shipping center. Cost-saving, productivity and reliability will become the key growth engine for supply chain layout in the coming years.

Tao Chengbo, chairman of Zhejiang Seaport Group and Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group, proposed to promote the capacity of Ningbo Zhoushan Port and improve its logistics service level, boosting foreign trade and optimizing services of the port.

Tianjin Port actively accelerated the construction of a world-class smart and green hub port, said Chu Bin, chairman of Tianjin Port (Group), adding that Tianjin Port has broken the loading and unloading records for various cargo types more than 120 times over the past five years, and the online handling rate for container business has exceeded 97 percent.

During the forum, three industry research reports including “Maritime Silk Road Port and Shipping Trade Development Report (Zhejiang - Southeast Asia)" were released.

At the same time, an international friendly port cooperation mechanism has been established, involving 47 institutions from 29 countries and regions.

Additionally, China Economic Information Service (CEIS) has released the "Blue Book on the Development of Ningbo Zhoushan International Shipping Center (2023) ". This publication is based on study of the vivid practice of Zhoushan in building an international shipping center and a world-class port. Through in-depth research and close tracking of the 15 most influential events in 2023, it analyzes the construction of the Ningbo Zhoushan International Shipping Center.