ESM Goh visits Anhui’s Wuhu Sanshan Port

ANHUI, China: Singapore Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong on Friday visited Wuhu Sanshan Port, a joint venture between Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation (Keppel T&T) and Sinotrans. It was part of his provincial visit to China’s Anhui province.

The port is Keppel T&T’s second partnership with the Sinotrans Group, and serves Anhui province and China’s central region.

When completed, the 800 million yuan investment will be one of the largest inland river ports in Anhui province. The port has a land area of 553,000 square meters, and a handling capacity of over seven million tonnes per year.

Vincent Ko, CEO of Logistics China at Keppel T&T, said: "This is the second port in China under Keppel T&T, and this is the first port development in the Yangtze River. I suppose this is the first stop in Yangtze, we hope that we are going to have more (projects of) similar scale as well as to provide integrated port logistics service to China."

Apart from port operations, Wuhu Sanshan will also provide integrated logistics services such as international freight forwarding, customs declaration and other third—party logistics services.

Wuhu City has the second largest economy in Anhui province, and is located near the economic hubs of Shanghai and Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. With five major railway lines, it is also an important railway hub in eastern China.

Earlier in the day, Mr Goh also visited the headquarters of Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile in Wuhu City. Founded in 1997, Chery is the seventh—largest China—based automaker in terms of 2011 output.

Mr Goh’s visit to Anhui province is part of Singapore’s broader engagement of Chinese provinces to seek new opportunities for cooperation.

—CNA/ac