The Netherlands, China Work Closer

During the Pan-European inland shipping conference last week in Rotterdam, the Dutch Minister of Transport Tineke Netelenbos and her Chinese collegue Huang Zhendog signed an agreement to intensify cooperation especially in intermodal transport. The Netherlands and China already cooperate in the Yangtze River Basin project. According to the project's Masterplan container transport by barge should rise from 600,000 TEU in 1996 to 9.5 million TEU in 2010. The intermodal system should comprise Wuhan, Jiujiang, Wuhu, Nanjing, Zhangjaigang, Nanton and Shanghai as central ports. Some 80 vessels with a capacity of 120 TEU each, should feed the system.