Trophy project reflects yet another win for BRI

Maritime Silk Road starting point takes initiative in high-quality development

The largest container ship ever built, MSC Irina, which set off on its maiden voyage from Nansha port in April, has a hull stretching 399.99 meters. Its presence in the deep-water port symbolizes yet another victory for the Belt and Road Initiative and for promoting high-quality development in China.

Nansha container port, one of the starting ports of the Maritime Silk Road, and which opened in 2004, lies 70 kilometers south of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and is the fastest growing port in the Pearl River Delta serving China's main manufacturing region.

However, for Nansha to accommodate large vessels such as MSC Irina, whose tallest single-shell container layer could be up to 25 layers, or the height of a 22-story building, and can carry more than 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers, the backstory is hard for anyone to imagine.

To cite one, though positioned closer to manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta's northwest quadrant, to reach Nansha's berths, ships must travel up a narrow, 35 km channel. It took hundreds of thousands of workers' years of time and cost more than $1 billion to dredge the riverbed of that channel to a depth of more than 17 m.

As China outlined a road map for high-quality development, which President Xi Jinping said is "the first and foremost task in building a modern socialist country in all respects", the construction of Nansha port has been regarded as a trophy project that has to meet high standards set out by Guangdong province.

Shi Dan, professor in the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the requirements of high-quality development have many aspects.

"From a macroeconomic level, high-quality development refers to stable economic growth, balanced regional and urban-rural development, innovation-driven and green development that benefits all people with more and fairer distribution of the fruits of economic growth.

"From an industrial perspective, high-quality development refers to optimizing industrial layout and structure, constantly achieving transformation and upgrading, and significantly improving the efficiency of industries.

"And in terms of business management, high-quality development includes first-class competitiveness, reliable and sustained innovation, influential brand-building and advanced quality management with concepts and methods."

Song Xiaoming, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Port Group, owner and operator of Nansha port, said that to meet those requirements, intelligent management and advanced information processing methods had been adopted in the newly built automated terminal known as Nansha port's fourth phase project.

"It's a fully automated port where no workers can be seen on site. The colossal bridge cranes will precisely locate and lift containers from huge freighters docked and move them efficiently to automated vehicles."

Because the terminal is the first of its kind built in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area that incorporates Beidou navigation, 5G communications, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles, it is hoped that it will form a specialized and large-scale terminal cluster in Nansha to promote comprehensive collaboration among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Song said.

As a result of Nansha port's efforts driven by high-quality development, the port has developed 150 international shipping routes with more than 100 countries and regions worldwide.

In the first three months of this year Nansha port's total import and export value reached 292.5 billion yuan ($41 billion), an increase of 16.27 percent compared with the corresponding period last year, according to customs figures.

Cutting red tape

Chen Xi, deputy director of Nansha Customs, said that together with Nansha port authorities, a variety of policy measures had been adopted to cut red tape, further facilitating customers and logistic companies.

"Measures of convenient clearance and tax reduction and exemption should be highlighted here," Chen said, adding that in April the average clearance time for imports and exports in Nansha Customs District was 28.49 hours and 0.89 hours respectively.

"It's a reduction of 65.8 percent and 92.1 percent respectively compared with 2017."