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Philippine Special Envoy to China Harry Angping and Consul General Maria
Rowena Mendoza Sanchez
together with representatives of the Shanghai Marine Diesel Engine Research
Institute
21 April 2008 - Philippine
Special Envoy to China Harry Angping and Consul General Maria Rowena Mendoza
Sanchez attended the Marintec China which was recently held at the Shanghai
International Exhibition Center.
Marintec
China is the definitive maritime conference and exhibition in Asia and is
co-sponsored by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, China Shipbuilding
Industry Corporation, China Association of the National Shipbuilding
Industry and the Chinese Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers.
Over 1,100 exhibiting companies
attended, with 35,309 visitors being registered, up 17% on the previous
event in 2005. Over the four-day show, out of 35,309 visitors, 4,085 were
from overseas from over 87 countries.
Citing the fast-growing Chinese
economy and the rapidly developing foreign trade, Philippine Special Envoy
to China Harry Angping said that this has resulted in a speedy increase in
the Chinese marine transportation volume and also created a momentum in the
global sea transportation industry. He also pointed out that foreign
exhibitors to Marintec China say that this is the most important fair abroad
for the maritime industry and they forecast China’s global role in the world
maritime industry and are optimistic in developing business in and with
China.
In the past 3 years, China accounted
for more than 90% of the world bulk cargo sea transportation volume's
increment. China's demand for new shipping in 2006-2010 is forecast to be 31
million DWT, or approximately 6.2 million DWT on average per year. Shanghai
Port delivered 26.15 million TEUs in 2007, 20.4% higher than the year
before. The container throughput was 560 million tons, increasing by 4.2%.
More than 30 million TEUs are expected to be handled annually by 2010.
Consul General Sanchez noted that
the maritime industry is one area to consider in the fast developing
Philippines-China bilateral relations. “The Philippines is an archipelagic
country and we need to develop our ports and our ship-building capability in
order to bring about economic development to the various islands. We are
also one of the world’s biggest supplier of seafarers. Meanwhile, China has
one of the fastest growing shipbuilding industries in the world and two of
its ports – the Shanghai Port and Ningbo Port are already among the top 5
biggest ports in the world. China and the Philippines can complement each
other in this field.
The next exhibition of the Marintec
China is scheduled for 1 to 4 December 2009 at the Shanghai New
International Expo in Shanghai, China. END
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