Antwerp and Guangzhou, China’s fifth-largest port, have agreed to twin up as part of a joint marketing exercise aimed at securing a larger share of the trade flowing between northwest Europe and China, and to capitalise on Beijing’s ‘One Belt and Road’ program.
“The twinning agreement takes the relationship between the ports to a new level, and includes commercial collaboration,” the Port of Antwerp Authority said in a press release.
The two ports had already signed an agreement in 2010 for the transfer of skills and know-how from APEC, the training unit of the port of Antwerp Authority, which is now setting up a new joint training institute with Guangzhou to offer courses in port operations for industry professionals from Asia, Africa and Latin America
Guangzhou last year handled 510m tonnes of cargo, including 16.6m 20-foot-equivalent units of container traffic. The volume of container traffic handled by Antwerp grew by 8% in the first nine months of the year with traffic from Asia up 6.2%, despite China’s economic slowdown.
Antwerp and Guangzhou twin up in latest One Belt One Road initiative
Source: joc