Shipping forum to be held in Shanghai

The 2021 North Bund Forum by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and the Ministry of Transport will take place from Nov 3 to 5 in Shanghai, the event organizers announced on Tuesday.

Themed "openness and inclusiveness, innovation and reform, and win-win cooperation: embracing future development and restructuring of international shipping", the forum will serve as a platform for the exchange of solutions for major issues in the global shipping industry.

According to Zhang Wei, vice-mayor of Shanghai, the forum has been tasked to incubate governance rules and norms of the international shipping industry, publish China and global shipping policies and regulations, and showcase Shanghai as an international shipping center.

A series of activities and collaborative programs will be revealed during the forum, along with a set of announcements with regard to the shipping economy, the development of ports and energy saving, added Zhang.

"Shipping, as an important part of a comprehensive transportation system, handles more than 95 percent of China's global trade transportation, and it supports China's high level of opening-up and high quality development," said Yi Jiyong, deputy head of the Water Transport Bureau under the Ministry of Transport.

According to Yi, China's maritime fleets has the world's second largest capacity of 310 million dead weight tonnages as of the end of 2020, and China's maritime transport service network connects major ports in more than 100 nations and regions.

The event looks to tap into the latest trends in the global shipping industry, boost communications and cooperation across the international shipping industry, promote the sector's sustainable development, serve China's strategy of building national strength in transport, shipping and civil aviation, as well as facilitate the healthy development of global economy and trade.