Transport debated by local officials in bid to lift trade

Representatives of the nine provinces and autonomous regions which the Yellow River runs through met on Aug 8 to discuss the future of their only access point to the sea－Qingdao city in East China's Shandong province.

The main topics of the seminar included land-sea intermodal transport and cooperation between the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River, which flows from west to east.

In the first seven months of 2020, foreign trade in the nine provinces and autonomous regions totaled 2.22 trillion yuan ($320 billion), accounting for 13 percent of the country's total, said Zou Zhiwu, vice-minister of the General Administration of Customs, Qingdao Daily reported.

The growth rate of foreign trade in these regions during that period was 5.3 percentage points higher than the national. It means that the Yellow River basin has tremendous potential to develop an export-oriented economy, Zou noted at the seminar.

However, due to natural conditions and other factors, the Yellow River has not become a "golden waterway" like the Yangtze River and the flow of people and goods along the river and out to sea does not all go smoothly. The key to solving this problem is ports, according to Qingdao Daily.

"Shandong Port Group has built an inland port in Gansu, which serves as an efficient and convenient trade path for Gansu to go east and for Shandong to go west," said Li Rongcan, Party secretary of Lanzhou city in Northwest China's Gansu province. It is one of the nine provinces and autonomous regions the Yellow River traverses.

So far, Qingdao has established inland ports in provinces including Shaanxi, Gansu, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, according to Qingdao Daily.

Qingdao is also creating an international logistics network that reaches Japan, South Korea, Europe, South Asia, Russia, Mongolia and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations via sea, land, air and rail transport.

"We have played an active part in Shandong's effort to promote cooperation between the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River and land-sea intermodal transport," said Wang Haimin, director of the board of China COSCO Shipping Corp.

"COSCO has entered into a strategic partnership with Shandong Port Group and established COSCO Qingdao, marking a new stage in COSCO's development in Shandong," Wang noted.

Jiang Mingbao, chief engineer at the Ministry of Transport, said: "Qingdao Port is the country's first port operator to accommodate over 1 million standard containers for sea-rail combined transport. Its convenient location is a natural advantage for the city to connect domestic and overseas markets and promote land-sea intermodal transport."

Wang believes that digital shipping and digital ports are the future of the sector.

"COSCO and Shandong Port Group together launched blockchain-based contactless services during the COVID-19 outbreak," Wang was quoted as saying by Qingdao Daily.

"In the future, the two companies will further their cooperation in developing blockchain-based port and shipping solutions, 5G ports and the internet of things to jointly create a digital shipping ecosystem," Wang added.