Authorities in Hubei have announced ambitious plans to build new docks, railways and roads around the provincial capital of Wuhan, a development they said would make the city the biggest river port in Asia by 2030, according to China Business Weekly.
The move is part of a plan to speed up the industrialisation of the Yangtze Economic Zone to benefit from effective river transportation.
"Hubei's Yangtze Economic Zone, with an area of more than 70,000 sq km, will become a convenient logistics hub of the Yangtze River and Central China, a modern base for a variety of industries and an ecologically friendly home for urban dwellers by 2020," said Zhang Chang'er, a member of the provincial standing committee of the Communist Party of China.
The proposed new Wuhan port comprises 22 districts, covering 173 km.
However, the proposal does not go far enough, according to one observer.
"It should be extended as far as Huangshi, a downstream port district only 70 km from Wuhan, so we can have a greater Wuhan port that smoothly connects with railways and highways," said Wu Xinmu, an economics professor at Wuhan University.
Wu said another challenge is overlapping administrations.
"The new Wuhan port will integrate docks that used to be owned and managed by different enterprises or local administrations. Only through integration can we improve efficiency," Wu said.
The docks are being designed to take advantage of river transportation and also develop local industry with the facilitation of advanced logistics systems.
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