China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and Economic Belt development vision has takers in UK maritime sector, reports Xinhua News Agency.
Both countries expected to improve bilateral maritime cooperation in the "Belt and Road" initiative, chairman of Maritime London Lord Mountevans said.
‘All maritime roads lead to London’ stated moderator Doug Barrow, chief executive of promotional body Maritime London, organiser of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) event.
CMA CGM, the third biggest container operator globally, signed a strategic "Belt and Road" project with China Merchants Holdings, investment arm of China Merchants (CM) Group, to investigate and evaluate together investment opportunities.
It became the first overseas company to sign such an agreement with a Chinese company for this strategic project, Michael Parker, chairman of CMA CGM (UK) Holdings Ltd told the forum.
Li Maochun, Managing Director of of China Merchants, said there had been a good international response to the Maritime Silk Road from ‘a world thirsty for a growth-driven, sustainability building policy,’ which he described as a ‘global outreach programme’ in the spirit of Marco Polo and Zheng He.
According to ShiCheng Yang, chief executive of Cosco (UK), one likely effect of the development of OBOR on the liner trade would be that “trading patterns will be different, for example in Africa and southeast Asia, and the[route] network will be more complex.”
China has been seen as an emerging strength in global maritime industry. According to Clarkson Research Services, China now controls 10 percent of the world fleet, 33 percent of new building deliveries on a compensated gross tonnes basis (CGT) and 38 percent of the global order book in CGT terms.