Guangzhou Port to host top executives and experts from the global port industry between 6th and 10th May.
With its key role as a trading harbor on the ancient Maritime Silk Road well over 2000 years ago, Guangzhou Port has become focus of attention as a principal sea hub of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. The initiative has just celebrated its Second Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing last week, hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for heads of state and government from 37 countries.
The city of Guangzhou is also host to the China's largest annual trade exhibition, the Canton Fair. The 125th edition that runs until 5th May this year will host some 25,000 exhibitors of Chinese products and 200,000 buyers from around the globe.
The Belt and Road Initiative is just one of the core themes of this year’s IAPH World Ports Conference hosted by the Port of Guangzhou. IAPH members and associate members will have the chance of returning home with valuable information on the following key topics during the course of the Conference:
• The Challenges of New and Disruptive Technologies to Ports and People
• An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Port Development
• Bay Area Ports and Competing Urban Developments
• New Modes of Cross-border Trade and Legal Aspects of E-commerce
• China and the World's Emerging Cruise Markets
• Reducing Energy Consumption and Emissions in Ports
Experts from the maritime industry representing all stakeholders will offer attendees unique insights into key issues affecting maritime global trade, sustainability initiatives and the impact of digitization.
Welcoming address from host Port of Guangzhou Authority, Guangdong province and Ministry of Transport to be accompanied by IAPH President and IMO General Secretary
The opening address will be offered from the Conference hosts Port of Guangzhou Authority as well as dignitaries from the Chinese Transport Ministry and Guangdong Province. A keynote will be delivered by IAPH President Santiago Garcia-Milà, with IMO General Secretary Kitack Lim relaying his message to delegates on vital role that ports have in transforming the shipping industry.
With the IMO 2020 sulphur cap legislation coming into force next January limiting pollution to 0.5% of mass by ships on the horizon, the world’s ports are readying themselves to provide infrastructure and services to support this change. Billions of dollars are being invested by owners in modifying and retrofitting existing fleets, with ports also investing heavily in new infrastructure destined for bunkering alternative fuels.
The IMO target to cut the shipping sector's overall CO2 output by 50 percent by 2050 also has a direct impact on port operations. Several conference sessions will open the debate up around the precise role ports will have to play in accomplishing this goal.
Market intelligence at the highest level on global trade trends
Members and Associate members will benefit from privileged access to data of IAPH media partner and the world’s leading market intelligence company IHS Markit, with their Senior Vice President of Maritime & Trade Stuart Strachan discussing shifting patterns in the World economy and forecasting future trends in global trade.
Top ship owner-operators' viewpoints as customers of ports
Port and associate members will get the chance to gain perspectives from their main clients, namely ship owners and terminal operators. Both Yu Zenggang (Executive Vice President, COSCO Shipping) and Tim Smith (China and Chief Representative, North Asia, Maersk Group) will present keynotes on trends in global port investment and development as well as maritime industry development and frontier issues in port logistics.
The Cruise industry is also well represented with Lim Jiun Yan (Senior Vice President, GENTING Cruise Lines), Remco Buis ( Vice President Land Operations , Carnival Maritime) and senior executives from Worldwide Cruise Terminals as well as the Singapore’s Marina Bay Cruise terminal operator SCCS joining the parallel session on China and the World's Emerging Cruise Market.
A rare opportunity to listen to the Chinese perspective – from ports to internet entrepreneurs and top level shippers
#IAPHGHZ19 will also offer attendees unique access to viewpoints of senior representatives from the Ports of Guangzhou, Ningbo, Qingdao, Tianjin, and HKSAR who will be taking part in plenary as well as parallel sessions.
Li Kewu (Chief Expert, Port Industry, Huawei Technologies) will speak on the digital transformation of future ports whilst his colleague Chen Bin (General Manager of Guangzhou Enterprises Business Dept, Huawei Technologies) and Zhang Li (Senior Vice President of the facial recognition technology company Cloudwalk) will provide a context to the impact of new and disruptive technologies on ports and people.
In the session on new modes of cross-border trade and legal aspects of e-commerce, attendees will gain fascinating insights into how the Chinese internet economy has had a profound impact on the end-to-end supply chain. Participants include Xu Hai (Amazon AWS Public Sector, Head of Solution Architect) and legal expert Wang Jing (Founder of WANG JING & CO)
One of the main highlights of the conference will be the closing presentation on Wednesday 8th May by Liu Song (Vice President, Alibaba Group & Vice President, Alibaba Cloud) on the leading role of China's digital economy in the world.
Insights from the engines of China's Belt and Road Initiative
Aside from perspectives on trade from the Chinese Ministries of Transport and Commerce in Beijing as well as from the Bank of China, two of the largest Chinese corporations active in some of the world's largest port developments will be offering their own insights. Sun Ziyun (Vice President & Chief Engineer, China Communications Construction Company) and Lin Yichong (Chairman, China Harbor Engineering Company) will discuss regional economic developments and the new opportunities for ports created by the Belt and Road Initiative.
Clean Marine Fuels and IAPH Environmental Shipping Index initiatives, integrating UN SDGs into Ports Governance, and the new IAPH Women’s Mentoring Program – IAPH working group activity updates
IAPH Members are welcome to attend internal meetings on Tuesday 7th May. They will receive the latest updates on the significant progress reached on several IAPH initiatives. These include those which aim at making an impact on reducing GHG emissions in ports, integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into Ports Governance, and the IAPH Womens’ Forum plan on deploying an online mentoring system to develop women port professionals. Updates will also be received on partner programs dealing with such issues as anti-corruption measures, digitization and cybersecurity, safe stowage, port noise mitigation and port call optimization.
Member ports from around the globe participating in these and other IAPH workgroups will also be participating in these conference sessions, including senior leaders from the Port Authorities of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Gdansk, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Los Angeles, Seattle & Tacoma, Panama, Açu, Baku, Busan, the Tokyo Bay Area, Auckland and the Solomon Islands.
The Conference will also welcome the recently appointed Vice-Chair of the IMO Facilitation (FAL) Committee and current IAPH Vice-President for the Africa region Hadiza Bala Usman, who is Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority.
IAPH World Ports Sustainability Awards
On the evening of Thursday 9th of May, a gala dinner will take place in the Oriental Hall of the Baiyun International Convention Center. IAPH World Ports Sustainability Award winners will be announced who have submitted projects to the IAPH World Ports Sustainability Program in six categories. From a long list of well over seventy projects, an external jury composed of top industry experts have shortlisted three finalists in each of the six categories which have also received votes from the public which is now closed. The finalists can be viewed on the WPSP website.
Registration information : registration@iaphgz2019.com
Event site : https://www.iaphgz2019.com/iaph_english/Index.html
About IAPH (iaphworldports.org)
Founded in 1955, the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) is a non-profit-making global alliance of 170 ports and 140 port-related organisations covering 90 countries. Its member ports handle more than 60 percent of global maritime trade and around 80 percent of world container traffic. IAPH has consultative NGO status with several United Nations agencies. In 2018, IAPH established the World Ports Sustainability Program (WPSP). Guided by the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, it aims to unite sustainability efforts of ports worldwide, encouraging international cooperation between all partners involved in the maritime supply chain. WPSP (sustainableworldports.org) covers five main areas of collaboration: energy transition, resilient infrastructure, safety and security, community outreach and governance.