China News Service, Ningbo, November 4 (Zhang Bin, Tang Yuxian, Liu Zilin) In the Meishan Port area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port, bridge cranes rise and fall, and trucks pass through.
On November 3, the "2026 World Mayors Dialogue·Ningbo" scenario dialogue "Resilience and Development: Port City Interconnection" was held here. Port city representatives from Cotonou, Benin, Klang, Malaysia, and Tamatave, Madagascar, sat together with the person in charge of Ningbo City and Ningbo Zhoushan Port with the dock as the background.
Geographical conflicts, blockage of key routes, and the rise of trade protectionism have caused global shipping to shift from "efficiency first" to "equal emphasis on safety and efficiency." Ports, the barometer of the global economy, have been pushed to the forefront. Whether routes will be interrupted, whether costs will get out of control, and where the money for green transformation will come from are all unavoidable questions.
As the world's largest port in terms of cargo throughput, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port does not want to play the "leading role" in this dialogue. Before the dialogue began, the foreign guests at the meeting visited the world's largest port. Ningbo Zhoushan Port is located at the "T-shaped intersection" of China's front coastline and the golden channel of the Yangtze River. It faces the main channel of the Pacific Ocean and is backed by China's vast hinterland. It has a deep-water channel of 22.5 meters and has the most deep-water terminals in China.
According to the organizer, Ningbo Zhoushan Port's cargo throughput will exceed 1.4 billion tons in 2025, becoming the world's first 1.4 billion-ton port, ranking first in the world for 17 consecutive years; container throughput will exceed 43 million TEUs, ranking third in the world.
“There are some driverless cars at the terminal, which left a very deep impression on us.” Romulus Agbejecu, chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee of Cotonou City in Benin, said that he hopes that such a scene can be replicated in the Port of Cotonou. Rao Haribelo Alexa, special representative of the mayor of Tamatave, Madagascar, city councilor and chairman of the International Relations Committee, feels "efficient": "This is the most developed, modern and efficient port in the world, with many innovations in port management."
The actual feelings of foreign guests come from the practice of Ningbo Zhoushan Port for many years. "We have built a deterministic system that does not rely on people." Yu Fengqing, deputy mayor of the Ningbo Municipal People's Government, said that unmanned truck collection, remote control systems, and digital twin systems support the port in achieving "the ship has not arrived at the port, the process has been determined, intelligent rehearsal, and the entire process is controllable." "This is our hard confidence."
At a time when global trade uncertainty is increasing, a stably operating port itself is a source of certainty for the global supply chain. By the end of 2025, Ningbo Zhoushan Port has 309 container routes, connecting more than 700 ports in more than 200 countries and regions around the world; sea-rail combined transport has given China's inland cities their own outlets to the sea.
What is more important than the number of routes is that routes can back up each other. Teng Yahui, Party Committee Member and Deputy General Manager of Zhejiang Provincial Seaport Group and Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group, took the European route as an example. The Ningbo-European Arctic route, which was tested last year and will be in normal operation this year, does not need to cross the Suez Canal. "The time is shortened by about half compared with the current route." In addition, Ningbo Zhoushan Port has realized data exchange with Cotonou Port, Tamatave Port, Shanghai Port and Busan Port, and will also cover Port Klang in Malaysia in the next step.
Routes can be backed up and data can be shared. At this time, ports are no longer simply "comparing sizes", but have become "connectors" to each other. In fact, these explorations are the goals of China's top-level design: the "15th Five-Year Plan" outline has a special section on "Building a Resilient and Efficient International Logistics Supply Chain System", which proposes to deepen cooperation on important economic corridors and pivot ports, unblock the multiple channels of the land, sea and sky network, and improve a diversified and resilient international transportation channel system.
For many economies, ports are not only gateways to their own countries, but also to the sea for the entire region. The Port of Tamatave handles 80% of Madagascar’s maritime cargo throughput. Rao Harivello Alexa said that establishing direct shipping links with Ningbo-Zhoushan Port "is a very big guarantee for us." Li Fuhao, a member of the Klang City Council in Malaysia, mentioned that Port Klang is located in the middle of the Strait of Malacca and has become a sister port with Ningbo Zhoushan Port under the framework of the China-Malaysia Port Alliance. "Sister ports are not just about each other's achievements, but about how to work together to enhance resilience to cope with possible upcoming crises internationally."
In fact, not only representatives from developing countries hope to enhance interaction with Ningbo Zhoushan Port. During the "2026 World Mayors Dialogue·Ningbo" event, Wayne Brown, the mayor of Auckland, New Zealand, said in an interview that Auckland is a port city. This trip to Ningbo and Zhoushan Port allowed him to see that China's ports are not only large in scale, but also pay more attention to green, low-carbon and intelligent development. He hopes that colleagues in Ningbo will also go to Auckland to have a look and help them judge how much efficiency can be improved. "Nowadays, more and more people are paying attention to China's development experience. We hope to further communicate with Chinese cities like Ningbo and jointly strengthen cooperation in the fields of technological innovation, culture and education, and economic development," he said.
Faced with the urgent need to improve resilience and green transformation, "joint development" is a natural result of the development of port cities in many countries around the world. The "2026 World Mayors Dialogue·Ningbo" situational dialogue is building such a platform. Ningbo Zhoushan Port has built China's first "wind, solar and hydrogen storage" multi-energy integrated complementary project and Zhejiang Province's first "green electricity port", with a clean energy utilization rate of over 70%. During the interview, Mr. Li Fuhao pointed out that although Malaysian ports have few wind energy resources, they are rich in solar energy resources. They can learn from the Ningbo Zhoushan Port model to develop clean energy.
It is conceivable that unified standards, joint procurement, and shared operation and maintenance mean that the threshold for green transformation will be further lowered. Zhou Qiangwu, former vice president and chief administrative officer of the BRICS New Development Bank, gave suggestions during the dialogue: Ports in the same region or in nearby regions can unify green standards, jointly purchase green equipment, share operation and maintenance technology, and jointly build green corridors, so as to attract more ocean shipping to dock and improve the utilization rate of green facilities.
At the main event of the "2026 World Mayors Dialogue·Ningbo", representatives of local governments from many countries jointly released the "Ningbo Consensus on Cooperation and Development" in Ningbo, advocating adhering to openness and integration, strengthening interconnection, and jointly maintaining the stability and smoothness of the industrial and supply chains. "We do not want to seize the leading role of global ports and shipping. We will serve as a connector of the world shipping network, connecting one end to China's hinterland and the other end to partners around the world." During the situational dialogue, Yu Fengqing said that Ningbo is willing to transform the practice of the world's largest port into a shareable public product: open customs clearance collaboration. experience, share smart port solutions, and turn years of accumulated technology into standardized solutions and common interfaces, so that ports of different sizes and different stages of development can "plug and play". "We must turn the 'connection' of the ports into the 'sameness' of each other, and turn the 'port' of Ningbo into a 'bridge' for everyone."
