China set to spend US$2.8 bln on inner water ports by 2015

 Inner water ports are emerging as the next big business opportunity in China's port infrastructure sector, according to Ms. Luo Ping from Institute of Comprehensive Transport of China's National Development and Reform Commission, who will be providing more details at the Port Planning & Design China 2011 conference in Shanghai, Business China reports.


For China's port marine sector, the largest projects were planned in the four years from 2006 to 2010, and while China will continue to be the world's largest port developer the pace of development will be slowing down a little. With the port infrastructure sector set to slow down, what does this mean for business opportunities in the market?


Luo Ping, Director of the China Research Institute Of Comprehensive Transportation National Development and Reform Commission believes inner water ports will be the next big business opportunity in China's port infrastructure sector.


"The best year was 2006-2010. The largest projects were planned during that time. In 2011-2015, China will still be the largest port infrastructure market but the pace of development will be slowing down. Although the development of port infrastructure is slowing down, there is a good opportunity in inner port infrastructure because of China economic development. Inner port projects won't be as large as sea ports, however, the increase of inner water ports will be rapid," she said.


On 3rd May 2011, China announced an ambitious 18 billion yuan investment (US $2.8Billion) from 2011-2015 to deepen part of the lower Yangtze river's navigation channel to allow vessels of up to 50,000dwt to sail from the estuary of the river all the way up to Nanjing. Construction is expected to start at the end of the year and will be funded by the transport ministry and Jiangsu's government. Similar projects are expected to be announced throughout this year.


Ms. Luo Ping will be sharing more details on China's inner water ports during a panel discussion that will outline China's port development and how it is in line with city development at Construction IQ's upcoming Port Planning & Design China 2011 conference, held in Shanghai from the 16-17 August 2011.


Port Planning & Design China 2011will see port leaders from mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Macau and Taiwan share their vision for port development in China in the next 5 years. The conference will provide companies who want to win projects in China an opportunity learn new project requirements, establish links with key project decision makers, and showcase advanced planning, design and construction techniques.
(Source:http://en.portnews.ru)