The Zhuhai Port on the mega Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in south China which marked its sixth anniversary on Wednesday saw surge in both foreign trade and vehicle trips through it in the first three quarters of this year, according to the latest customs data.
In the first nine months, the value of imports and exports through the Zhuhai Port, which lies at the end of the mega bridge on the side of the Chinese mainland, reached 164.97 billion yuan (nearly 23.2 billion U.S. dollars), with 3.968 million vehicle trips made, representing a year-on-year growth of 10.4 percent and 89.9 percent, respectively.
In the past six years since the mega bridge opened to traffic six years ago, total import and export value of goods moving through the Zhuhai port of the bridge has reached 942.7 billion yuan (more than 132.5 billion U.S. dollars), according to Zhuhai's Gongbei customs.
The port has recorded over 12.7 million inbound and outbound vehicle trips over the past six years.
The 55-kilometer-long bridge links China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), the Macao SAR and the city of Zhuhai in south China's Guangdong Province. It is the world's longest bridge-and-tunnel sea crossing.
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge sees surge in foreign trade, vehicle crossings in January-September
Clean energy, technology, and infrastructure are each key areas for potential cooperation between China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said Nasser Salem Al-Ali, head of Commercial Banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank.
The UAE banker is in Beijing to attend the 2024 Swift International Banker's Operation Seminar (Sibos) financial services forum that concluded on Thursday. Speaking to a reporter at the event, he stressed that both China and the UAE have strong advantages to bring to the table as their partnerships continue to deepen.
"When you speak about clean energy, actually the focus would be on three major themes. One sector would be EV cars, two would be solar energy, three would be green hydrogen. When we go to technology, we speak about AI, we speak about high-tech products and then the infrastructure. We could see a huge opportunity in terms of collaboration when it comes to huge projects and infrastructure within the UAE and also outside the UAE," Al-Ali said.
He added that China's efforts to boost its trade connectivity with the world could greatly benefit from the UAE's expertise in logistics.
"This is something where we excel, actually, in the UAE. And we could help the Chinese re-exporters to create a piece in the UAE and re-export easily to the region, the Middle East and Africa," he said.
The Sibos financial services forum opened in Beijing on Monday, gathering nearly 10,000 participants from over 150 countries and regions to discuss banking and payments, technology and innovation, and environmental, social and governance strategies.
Under the theme "Connecting the future of finance," the four-day event is set to promote communication between China and international financial institutions and drive the financial digital transformation.
The event's main exhibition has attracted 133 financial institutions and third parties, with 114 being from overseas. Meanwhile, over 50 fintech companies will showcase their best offerings at a separate exhibition.
Sibos has had 44 sessions since 1978. The meetings have been attended each year by 7,000 to 9,000 financial executives and experts from more than 150 countries and regions.
The 2024 Beijing Sibos is the first time that this event has taken place in the Chinese mainland, as its organizer, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), hopes to enhance Beijing's position as a global provider of secure financial messaging services.
Clean energy, infrastructure to be key areas of China-UAE cooperation: banker
