Central China river city Wuhan recently worked out a plan according to which the city will spend CNY53 billion (US$8.33 billion) on port development in the 12th National Five-year Plan period from 2011 to 2015, Xinhua reports.
 
    Wuhan plans to invest CNY86.1 billion on port development over the long term and eventually raise its container capacity to 2.6 million TEU, or 150 million tonnes in terms of tonnage.

    Wuhan now has 27 port areas and 502 berths. It is able to accommodate ships with capacity up to 70 million tonnes and can handle 92 million tonnes of cargo per year. A network of water, rail and road intermodal service has been formed at the port.

    Wuhan plans to develop "one centre, three hubs, six bases", which refers to mid-Yangtze shipping centre, Yangtze river shipping hub, multi-modal transportation hub, port industry hub and bases for container shipping, shipbuilding, multimodal transportation, shipping technology and education, logistics and trade, and shipping information.

    Now in Wuhan, there are 87 shipping companies, 47 shipbuilding companies, 15 shipping institutes and nine colleges that train over 20,000 professionals for the industry every year.
 

(source:www.schednet.com)