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Nantong rises as logistics hub in development of Yangtze River Delta
By Wan Lixin |
September 30, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NANTONG vows to sharpen its edge as a logistical hub in the Yangtze River Delta, capitalizing on its strategically positioned river and sea ports, and its access to Shanghai as transport improves.
These aspirations were aired, and shared, at the Pacific Forum 2009, held September 24 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province.
The event was sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Nantong Government, the RAND Corp, and the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group.
Situated immediately north of the Yangtze River, Nantong is traditionally part of northern Jiangsu, which is often associated with poverty and backwardness, forming a sharp contrast to economically vibrant south Jiangsu.
But the ongoing economic slowdown is forcing some structural changes in north Jiangsu, and these changes are facilitated by steady improvements in infrastructure.
On May 2008, the Sutong Bridge, which links up Suzhou and Nantong, was open to traffic.
According to professor Huang Renwei from Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, anticipating the changing situation in the wake of global economic crisis, the Chinese government has already made significant adjustments to its overall economic road map.
As far as the Yangtze River Delta region is concerned, the region originally centered on Shanghai and south Jiangsu is planned to expand further northward to north Jiangsu, and further southward in Zhejiang Province.
But some geographic barriers need to be overcome in these expansions.
Five new bridges will cross the Yangtze River in the region, two of them already completed. Similarly another five bridges will cross the Hangzhou Bay.
As Zhejiang is a mountainous province, the southward expansion would involve more difficulties, while the northward expansion will be more cost-effective.
North Jiangsu is an expanse of plain now crossed by a well-developed network of highways and railway.
Apparently Nantong will assume important responsibility as a logistical center in this northward expansion, acting as an immediate link between industrialized south Jiangsu and predominantly agricultural north Jiangsu.
Professor Huang frankly pointed out that although Shanghai Yangshan Port is a deepwater port with enormous cargo-handling capacity, this capacity is seriously compromised by the bridge linking the port and the land.
The truck bridge, as it stands, can only move about a tenth of the port's throughput.
But Nantong's Yangkou Port is not confronted with such restrictions.
October 2008 saw the opening of the Yangkou Port, a deepwater seaport akin to Shanghai's Yangshan Port. Yangkou port is to be linked with Nantong city by a railway.
Another fact highlighting Nantong's preeminence is that traditionally agricultural north Jiangsu is quickly being industrialized.
For the past year the export-oriented manufacturing in south Jiangsu has encountered serious difficulties, and it will be difficult for the region to return to its former splendor even after the economic downturn, because land and labor costs there have all climbed to unsustainable heights.
Which means a huge amount of manufacturing in south Jiangsu will head north, straining Nantong's logistical capacity.
Huang said that Shanghai's cargo shipping capacity is already one of the highest in the world.
As a steady flow of container trucks roar through the city along the Outer Ring Road, the traffic is producing pollution, congestion, noise and accidents.
Under such circumstances, adding to Shanghai ports' handling capacity will only make the ports less cost-effective.
Nantong obviously has the potential to take on some of the burden.
Nantong is one of the 14 Chinese coastal cities to be opened in the 1980s, but it failed to shine at that time, partly because the city did not enjoy some of the preferential foreign trade policies given to other cities.
Experts also cautioned about the importance of protecting the environment, stressing the need to supervise the discharge of sewage and waste from shipping vessels.
How to cut carbon emissions is another problem.
In the shipping sector China's carbon emissions already exceed the US level, so we are confronted with the task of cutting emissions in the sector.
These aspirations were aired, and shared, at the Pacific Forum 2009, held September 24 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province.
The event was sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Nantong Government, the RAND Corp, and the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group.
Situated immediately north of the Yangtze River, Nantong is traditionally part of northern Jiangsu, which is often associated with poverty and backwardness, forming a sharp contrast to economically vibrant south Jiangsu.
But the ongoing economic slowdown is forcing some structural changes in north Jiangsu, and these changes are facilitated by steady improvements in infrastructure.
On May 2008, the Sutong Bridge, which links up Suzhou and Nantong, was open to traffic.
According to professor Huang Renwei from Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, anticipating the changing situation in the wake of global economic crisis, the Chinese government has already made significant adjustments to its overall economic road map.
As far as the Yangtze River Delta region is concerned, the region originally centered on Shanghai and south Jiangsu is planned to expand further northward to north Jiangsu, and further southward in Zhejiang Province.
But some geographic barriers need to be overcome in these expansions.
Five new bridges will cross the Yangtze River in the region, two of them already completed. Similarly another five bridges will cross the Hangzhou Bay.
As Zhejiang is a mountainous province, the southward expansion would involve more difficulties, while the northward expansion will be more cost-effective.
North Jiangsu is an expanse of plain now crossed by a well-developed network of highways and railway.
Apparently Nantong will assume important responsibility as a logistical center in this northward expansion, acting as an immediate link between industrialized south Jiangsu and predominantly agricultural north Jiangsu.
Professor Huang frankly pointed out that although Shanghai Yangshan Port is a deepwater port with enormous cargo-handling capacity, this capacity is seriously compromised by the bridge linking the port and the land.
The truck bridge, as it stands, can only move about a tenth of the port's throughput.
But Nantong's Yangkou Port is not confronted with such restrictions.
October 2008 saw the opening of the Yangkou Port, a deepwater seaport akin to Shanghai's Yangshan Port. Yangkou port is to be linked with Nantong city by a railway.
Another fact highlighting Nantong's preeminence is that traditionally agricultural north Jiangsu is quickly being industrialized.
For the past year the export-oriented manufacturing in south Jiangsu has encountered serious difficulties, and it will be difficult for the region to return to its former splendor even after the economic downturn, because land and labor costs there have all climbed to unsustainable heights.
Which means a huge amount of manufacturing in south Jiangsu will head north, straining Nantong's logistical capacity.
Huang said that Shanghai's cargo shipping capacity is already one of the highest in the world.
As a steady flow of container trucks roar through the city along the Outer Ring Road, the traffic is producing pollution, congestion, noise and accidents.
Under such circumstances, adding to Shanghai ports' handling capacity will only make the ports less cost-effective.
Nantong obviously has the potential to take on some of the burden.
Nantong is one of the 14 Chinese coastal cities to be opened in the 1980s, but it failed to shine at that time, partly because the city did not enjoy some of the preferential foreign trade policies given to other cities.
Experts also cautioned about the importance of protecting the environment, stressing the need to supervise the discharge of sewage and waste from shipping vessels.
How to cut carbon emissions is another problem.
In the shipping sector China's carbon emissions already exceed the US level, so we are confronted with the task of cutting emissions in the sector.
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