Shanghai should leverage reforms and innovations in its pilot free trade zone to attract more shipping companies to set up their headquarters, the Shanghai Committee of Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party suggested.
"Although Shanghai ranks as the world's biggest container port, there is still huge gap between the city and the world's major shipping centers in terms of the number of internationally influential shipping institutions," Chen Su, general manager of East and Central China Cluster Import Sales Management of Maersk (China) Shipping Co and a member of the party, told Shanghai Daily.
Currently, the world's top-20 shipping lines and top-nine classification societies have all opened regional headquarters or representative offices in Shanghai, but they are still not able to make key business decisions without the authority of, for example, global headquarters sited in Hong Kong and Singapore.
"Limitations in financial openness, legal system, tax polices and human resources are then main deterrents to top shipping companies locating their Asian-Pacific headquarters and global headquarters in Shanghai," Chen said.
Shanghai is expected to handle 35.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) last year, an increase of 4.8 percent from the year before, keeping its position as the world's biggest container port, according to the Shanghai Transportation Commission.
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