The Port of Xiamen in China and Port Klang in Malaysia have agreed to conduct cooperative activities to strengthen their operations within the region, particularly in Southeast Asia.
Xiamen Port, which ranked 17th worldwide in container throughput last year, signed on May 25 a letter of intent on cooperation for the “Maritime Silk Road” with Port Klang, one of Malaysia’s busiest sea ports that ranked 12th worldwide in container throughput in 2014, according to a news report by the site What’s On Xiamen.
The two ports are aiming to establish a sister port relationship to boost their development in the Haixi area in China and in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region in terms of trade, logistics, and tourism, added the report.
Both are key ports in the development of the “Maritime Silk Road,” a Chinese strategic initiative to increase investments and foster collaboration across the historic Silk Road.
In 2014, Xiamen Port’s container throughput reached 8.57 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), and Port Klang’s container throughput hit 11 million TEUs.
The trade value between Xiamen and the ASEAN countries reached US$13 billion last year, occupying about half of the total trade value between Fujian Province and the ASEAN region. Xiamen has opened more than 12 container liner routes to 10 ASEAN countries so far.
Xiamen Port has witnessed an annual average growth rate of 8.73% in handling cargo from Xiamen to the ASEAN countries, and the annual average growth rate of cargo shipped from ASEAN to the Xiamen Port has surpassed 66%.
Photo: Hafiz343
