(CRI)
Updated: 2007-12-03 11:03

A door-to-door passenger and cargo delivery method will allow China and South Korea to better facilitate their increasing amount of trade and number of travelers in a more cost-effective and efficient way than air transport, the China Business News reports.

Through a combined land-sea transportation arrangement, vehicles from both China and South Korea will be ferried across the sea via rolling ships to deliver goods or passengers directly to their destinations in either country without having to unload and change onto vehicles of the host country.

A work-group meeting on the combined transport mode was held recently in Beijing during which transportation officials from the both countries held discussions on a draft agreement reached during their previous meeting and signed a memorandum of understanding.

The two-way land-and-sea transport service is now operational on a trial basis between China's port cities in Shandong Province and South Korea's Incheon port. Qingdao customs, for instance, began a trial monitoring of vehicle logistics last April. In late September this year, a truck loaded with 1.5 tons of live sea food was ferried from Shandong's Weihai port to South Korea's Incheon port in 12 hours and then driven directly to the owner's warehouses.

The new way of transport reduces the time it takes to clear customs from several hours to just a few minutes, which helps to keep the sea food fresh and to bring 15 percent more profits to the firm, according to the South Korean owner of the cargo.

The report quotes local media in Shandong as saying that the "live fish transport" service will save about two hours in cargo unloading from ships, moving boxes and waiting at ports and customs. China and South Korea, with their large amount trade in goods in particular, ranging from fresh farm produce, foods, fragile goods, precision instruments to electronic products, need such a service to help increase efficiency and security, Weng Mengyong, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce, said at the meeting in Beijing.

Weng said bilateral trade between China and South Korea, which stood at US$134 billion last year, is expected to rise significantly again this year.

China is now South Korea's largest export country and second largest import country and the two countries need closer cooperation on logistics, an official from the South Korean Ministry of Construction and Transportation said.