According to the agreement, the two parties will jointly follow the idea of General Secretary Xi Jinping on port development by making more strategic cooperation in the fields of smart ports, green ports, business cooperation, market expansion, capital operation, reform and innovation and personnel exchanges. Both parties will give full play to the location and resource advantages, strengthen the role of comprehensive hubs, accelerate building up world-class ports, and comprehensively improve the high-quality development. Through the interactions between two ports, they will jointly create a new opening-up pattern of “two-way mutual development between the east and the west, and interaction between the land and the sea” to better serve the major national strategies, such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area strategy, the free trade pilot zone strategy, the construction of China-SCO local economic cooperation demonstration zone and the coordinated development of Shandong and the areas along the Yellow River Basin.

Before signing the agreement, the two parties had a symposium. According to Huo Gaoyuan, there has long been a friendly business relation between Shandong Port Group and Guangzhou Port Group. At present, China is accelerating the formation of a new development pattern in which the domestic overall cycle is taken as the mainstay, and the domestic and international dual cycles promote each other. In the next step, it is hoped that the two parties will strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the domestic container business with a closer business relation.

According to Li Fengli, Shandong Port Group has formed a port development layout with Qingdao Port as the mainstay, Rizhao and Yantai Ports as the two wings, and numerous inland ports in Bohai Bay as extensions. Shandong Port Group and Guangzhou Port Group have been mutually destination ports since the past. Guangzhou Port is the largest automobile trading port in South China. Shandong Port Group is also building the largest automobile logistics base and consumer goods distribution center in the north. It is hoped that both parties will carry out practical cooperation to complement each other in terms of smart ports, logistics, consumer goods, domestic trade routes, etc.

Li Yibo gave his welcoming remarks to Huo Gaoyuan and Li Fengli, and congratulated Shandong Port Group on its fruitful achievements in ports integration. In his opinion, Guangzhou Port is the largest port in term of domestic trade in China and the main hub port for connecting the world in South China. It is continuously increasing investment in the construction of urban ports in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, so as to promote the formation of the port network service system that connects Hong Kong and Macao, links West Pearl River and serves the Pan-Pearl River Delta, and the new pattern of interactive and coordinated development of the “one core, two wings and multiple supports” port group. The Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port completed a container throughput of 16.67 million TEUs last year, ranking ahead in terms of single port areas in China. The Nansha Port Area is building the largest warehouse cluster in South China. The Nansha Port Railway will be put into use next year with more advantages in multimodal transport. Guangzhou Port is taking advantage of the balanced development of domestic and foreign trade businesses, making better use of both　markets and resources, and speeding up the formation of a new development pattern in which the domestic overall cycle is taken as the mainstay, and the domestic and international dual cycles promote each other. It is hoped that the two parties will carry out more in-depth cooperation, strengthen business exchanges, and jointly contribute　to the smooth dual cycles.

Li Wucheng, General Manager of Shandong Port Land-Sea International Logistics Group, Song Xiaoming, Deputy General Manager of Guangzhou Port Group, Zheng Lingtang, Deputy General Manager of Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd., and heads of relevant departments of Shandong Port Group and Guangzhou Port Group attended the signing ceremony. (Text by Zhang Minmin and Zou Jingqi, photo by Zhu Junkun)