Business delegation from Hamburg visits Greater Bay Area in Southern China

The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region was visited by a delegation of representatives of business and politics from the Port of Hamburg in the week of 19-23 November. Participants included Dr. Torsten Sevecke, State Secretary of the Ministry for Economy, Transport and Innovation Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (BWVI); Matthias Grabe, Chief Technical Officer, Member of the Executive Board and of the Management Board of the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Dr. Rolf Strittmatter, Managing Director of Hamburg Invest and Axel Mattern, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM). Members of HHM were also among the group: UNIKAI; MSC Germany; Nord Event; and Eurosib SPb-Transportation Systems. The delegation was accompanied by Anne Thiesen, who heads HHM’s Representative Office in Hong Kong and had organized the programme of visits.

The journey focussed on Hong Kong’s role in the Asian and world trading pattern; the Chinese government’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’; and various infrastructure projects in the Pearl River Delta Region that are designed to assist its common growth. One of the central events of the week was the Port Evening, hosted by Port of Hamburg Marketing in Hong Kong for the eighth consecutive time, and immensely appreciated by the 130 guests. Hamburg Invest co-hosted event, which also made the Port of Hamburg the only non-Chinese port to utilize Hong Kong Maritime Week to stage a function of its own.

“The Pearl River Delta is one of the centres of the Chinese economy and its growth to become the Greater Bay Area will further increase its importance. We therefore see it as appropriate to present the high-performance and reliable Port of Hamburg and to further deepen existing relationships. The traditionally excellent seaborne links between Hamburg und China are now supplemented by the 235 weekly train links offered, making Hamburg the European hub on the New Silk Road,” said Axel Mattern, commenting on the Port Evening in Hong Kong.

A visit to the Asia Logistics and Maritime Conference – ALMC – and appointments with Consul-General Dieter Lamlé and Dr Raymond So, State Secretary for Transport and Housing in the Hong Kong city government further deepened knowledge of the region. In the light of upcoming projects in the Hanseatic City, visits to the recently inaugurated Hong Kong-Macau-Zuhai Bridge (HMZB), the Tun Mun Tunnel still under construction, and Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong were of special interest.

In Shenzhen, finally, members of the delegation visited not only various high-tech enterprises that impressively demonstrated their knowhow in the IT and innovation fields, e.g. big data processing, but also the Cruise Terminal operated by China Merchants. In Shenzhen as a high-tech powerhouse, the BWVI took the opportunity of drawing attention to the ITS World Congress 2021 in Hamburg. A visit to the Guangzhou Port Authority that also involved tours of the Nansha Container Terminal and a cruise terminal project constituted the finale of a journey that had brought many long-lasting impressions for the delegation.