On the morning of January 9, Guangzhou Port Group held the unveiling ceremony of its Nansha Headquarters at the Nansha Hong Kong Chinese General Chamber of Commerce Building. This marks that Guangdong Province’s largest port terminal operator has completed its strategic shift from a river-facing to an ocean-facing orientation, marking a significant milestone in the construction of Guangzhou International Shipping Hub.
Strategic Significance: Urban Transformation from River-facing to Ocean-facing
The southward relocation of Guangzhou Port Group’s headquarters demonstrates Guangzhou’s firm resolve to transform into an ocean-featured city. This strategic adjustment is highly aligned with Guangdong’s development goal of building a “New Maritime Guangdong” and its overall strategy to develop into a strong maritime province. It highlights the firm determination of Guangzhou Port and Nansha to join hands in pursuing maritime development and fostering the port-vicinity economy. More importantly, this initiative will leverage the agglomeration of port resources to stimulate new momentum for the whole province’s maritime development, injecting strong impetus into the coordinated development of the world-class port cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and the further refinement of Guangdong’s “One Core, Two Poles” port pattern.
Liu Wei, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and Secretary of the CPC Nansha District Committee, stated at the unveiling ceremony that the relocation of Guangzhou Port Group’s headquarters is not merely a change of registered address, but a major strategic layout by the municipal Party committee and government to advance Guangzhou’s construction as an ocean city and develop Nansha into a world-class port-vicinity economic zone.
Port-Industry-City Integration: Driving a 100-Billion-Yuan Port-Vicinity Industrial Ecosystem
The relocation of Guangzhou Port Group to Nansha will give full play to its role as a chain leader, driving upstream and downstream enterprises in shipping, trade, manufacturing and other sectors to settle and operate in Nansha, and accelerating the development and expansion of the port-vicinity industrial cluster. At present, Nansha is fully implementing the “Five-Port Linkage” development strategy, integrating seaports, airports, digital ports, financial ports and talent ports, with a focus on leveraging the leading role of key enterprises such as Guangzhou Port Group.
The Nansha International Maritime Services Cluster has taken initial shape, gathering a number of shipping logistics and service enterprises including COSCO Shipping Bulk and COSCO Shipping Car Carriers. It now boasts the world’s largest dry bulk carrier fleet in terms of capacity and China’s largest car carrier fleet. Nansha has also joined hands with Hong Kong and Macao to build major platforms and carriers such as the GBA Shipping Joint Trading Center and the International Maritime Services Cluster, and launched the first bonded fuel oil blending and mixing pilot project in the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone.
Support Measures from Guangzhou Municipal Port Authority: Full Empowerment in Four Key Areas
The Guangzhou Municipal Port Authority will fully support Nansha’s “Five-Port Linkage” strategy, give full play to the leading role of key port and shipping enterprises such as Guangzhou Port Group, and comprehensively empower the development through four key initiatives. These measures aim to promote the transformation and upgrading of Nansha Port Area from a traditional logistics hub to a comprehensive service hub, continuously expand the port-vicinity industrial cluster, and further enhance Guangzhou Port’s hub status in the international shipping network.
- Policy SupportThe municipal port authority will fully implement tax and fee reduction policies, including the exemption of local government retained portions of port charges and preferential pilotage fees, as well as subsidy policies for the scrapping and renewal of old operational ships.
- Infrastructure ConstructionIt will support Guangzhou Port Group in advancing the construction of major projects such as the Nansha Port Area International General Terminal and Phase V of Nansha Port Area. In addition, it will actively promote the construction of the 200,000-ton-class waterway project of Guangzhou Port, which, upon completion, will enable the world’s largest container ships to enter and exit Nansha Port Area around the clock.
- Business Environment OptimizationThe authority will deepen the reform of streamlining administration, delegating power, improving regulation and optimizing services, promote facilitation measures such as “certificate handling without ship berthing”, and implement a 24-hour “zero-wait” pilotage service, maintaining Guangzhou Port’s world-leading efficiency in terms of average vessel turnaround time at berth.
- Port-Industry-City IntegrationIt will support Guangzhou Port Group in playing its role as a port chain leader and a hub for headquarters economy, attracting high-end elements such as shipping, logistics, trade and finance to converge in Nansha.
