At Dongguan Port, a crane was lifting a red container marked with “4 millionth TEU” and placing it slowly in the stocking zone. A round of thunderous applause followed the placement of the container. Recently, the annual container throughput of Dongguan Port exceeds 4 million, an increase of 12%. On the same day, a celebration of Dongguan Port’s 4 million annul container throughput and opening ceremony of the third phase wharf were hosted.  

During the ceremony, Dongguan Port Group signed cooperation agreements with multiple shipping enterprises in opening several domestic and foreign trade routes at Dongguan Port and express in the Greater Bay Area. The group also signed cooperation agreements with related enterprises in building a Belt and Road Initiative International Agricultural Products Trade Center and conducting international bulk agricultural products import such as palm oil. It also signed memorandum of understanding with departments such as customs, marine affairs and immigration inspection to create “thriving port and center for the Greater Bay Area”.

Ten routes are newly added to realize customs clearance within 24 hours

Following the opening of the 15 berths at Dongguan Port, all the berths operated by Dongguan Port Group are open to the public. As an important channel for Dongguan to open to the outside world, the wider accessibility of the ports of entry of Dongguan Port will integrate Dongguan into the country’s Belt and Road Initiative better and more efficiently and help Dongguan seize the opportunities brought by the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen Pilot Demonstration Area and provincial reform and innovation experimental area. With these favorable conditions in place, Dongguan’s foreign trade and open economy will witness greater progress and higher level of opening-up and advance the construction of “three ports”.

Currently, the routes of Dongguan Port cover coastal cities in Bohai Bay, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, as well as Taiwan, and countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Vietnam. Goods can be quickly dispatched with regular railway expresses arriving in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Sea-rail intermodal transport is developed and intersection with the Belt and Road Initiative is achieved through the seamless connection with Guangdong Railway International Logistics Base.

The ceremony saw the signing of three routes reaching Southeast Asia, three routes for domestic trade and 4 expresses connecting the Greater Bay Area. Efforts are also made to optimize the collection and distribution networks in the Greater Bay Area and increase routes connecting north and south as well as near-sea shipping lines for foreign trade. In so doing, more collection and distribution channels with higher efficiency, quality and lower costs will be provided for the manufacturing industry in the Greater Bay Area.

Policy coordination is also needed along with the opening of new berths and routes. Shatian Customs, Dongguan Maritime Safety Administration, Dongguan Station of Immigration Inspection, and Dongguan Port Group have jointly signed memorandum of understanding on building “thriving port and center for the Greater Bay Area”. They will have deeper cooperation in such aspects as launching 24-hour customs clearance services at ports, providing quarantine, and supervision on the fruit entering China, improving joint boarding mechanism, advancing “one-stop” government services at ports, simplifying inspection procedures and supervision process of entry-exit vessels at Dongguan Port, opening “green channels” for fresh products entering Hong Kong and Macao, and enhancing supervision efficiency and effectiveness. They will work together to create a leading business environment in the port area and comprehensively improve operation efficiency at ports and quality of services for Dongguan’s manufacturing industry.

Building Belt and Road Initiative International Agricultural Products Trade Center

In November, Dongguan Port officially announced its “commitment to six boutique services”. It involved quantified service standards such as 100% direct shipment of foreign trade liners, 100% direct shipment of expresses in the Greater Bay Area, liner bridge-hour efficiency at or larger than 30 containers/hour, time at ports of priority liner equal or less than 36 hours, average time for tow trucks operating at ports of 30 minutes or less, 24-hour customs clearance, inspection-container transfer response time of or less than 30 minutes, “one-stop” charge list. Port platform advantages are fully leveraged to deepen innovation in services, improve quality of services of Dongguan Port and realize the goal of building a “thriving port and center for the Greater Bay Area”.

Constant improvement of services at Dongguan Port translate into more cooperation. Dongguan Port Group and Shenzhen Yantian Port are working on building international land port. Through accelerating construction of lighter transport platform and container yard, the two sides are seeking further exchanges and cooperation based on their advantages in ports, warehousing and location so as to complement each other and achieve win-win results. Ultimately, powerful support will be injected into the close alignment with the Belt and Road Initiative and in-depth integration into the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Dongguan Port Group also worked with Guangdong Fengrui Baishun Group in building a Belt and Road Initiative International Agricultural Products Trade Center and Cold Chain Transaction Center. They strive for long-term cooperation in such fields as fruit check sites and warehouses and cold chain warehousing by utilizing Dongguan Port’s favorable conditions such as location, import and export, and infrastructure. They will jointly contribute to easier distribution of international agricultural products at Dongguan Port and cluster development of modern agricultural industry.

Aside from the above, Dongguan Port Group and Guangdong Blue Star Investment also cooperate with Manyifeng, a company in Malaysia, in carrying out projects related to international bulk agricultural products such as palm oil. They are working together to build Dongguan Port into an import base for palm oil from Malaysia. It is expected that annual import of palm oil from Port Klang of Malaysia will reach about 1.2 million tons, worth of about 6 billion yuan. This will generate demonstration effects concerning import of international bulk products under the Belt and Road Initiative from Dongguan Port.

Source: timedg.com