By He Shan
China.org.cn staff reporter

Despite the economic downturn across the world, an army of cranes are still busy above the bustling construction site on Gaolan Port in Zhuhai, on the southern coast of China.

The port, as the only deep-water container terminal port on the west bank of the Pearl River delta in southeastern China, is expected to help turn the city into an economic powerhouse just like Shenzhen and Dongguan.

Over the last 30 years, the delta's southwest bank has produced less than a quarter of the output of the cities along the northeast bank, because it is not so close to Hong Kong, a world financial hub whose economic power has helped catapult adjacent Shenzhen from a small fishing village to a glittering metropolis.

In a plan released in January for the future development of the delta, much weight is given to the economic development of Zhuhai. Building of the Gaolan Port, among the major projects that are included in the plan, will cost up to 130 billion yuan, and would allow factories on the southwest bank of the Pearl River to send goods by truck to the port for loading onto ocean-going ships.

"We've earned the opportunity; we will not waste it," asserts Li Yiping, director of Commission of Gaolan Port Economic Zone.

Fully developing the other side of the delta is likely to produce another flood of exports from what is already becoming the world's workshop in locations such as Dongguan.

In an interview, Li Yiping proudly reeled off the latest projects in the port: a 56-billion-yuan construction project of a ship-building base, and multi-billion-yuan oil warehouses for storage.

But Zhuhai will obviously face challenges from other emerging second-tier cities that are locked in ferocious competition, spawning ambitious development plans.

Each city in the delta is now trying to capture as much of this business as possible by overtaking its neighbors, often with waste and duplication. Every city wants to get the upper hand in economic development, and they all want an international airport, six-lane highways, and development zones, rather than integrated growth.

Inevitably, a stage will be set for a tussle among similar ports over who will control the transportation of goods.

Yet Li Yiping says the port operators will plan the port as a whole and identify a specific niche to avoid internal competition.

"The Gaolan Port will focus its business on storage for petrochemical manufacturers, while the advantage of Shenzhen's Yantian Port lies in its capacity to handle containers," he said.

(China.org.cn, May 4, 2009)