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Dunkerque-Port signs cooperation charter with the Port of Shanghai
9th july 2010

This week Martine Bonny, Chair of Dunkerque-Port's Executive Committee, and the Port's Commercial Director Daniel Deschodt, accompanied a large delegation of decision-makers from the Nord-Pas de Calais Region in an economic mission to Shanghai.

For the representatives of Dunkerque-Port the high point of the trip was on Friday 9 July, when they attended a seminar dedicated to the ports, alongside the Shanghai Port authorities. It was an opportunity for them to reaffirm the transoceanic role of Dunkirk, France's third-ranking port, with its geographic location in the foremost port region of France and its status as the country's leading rail freight hub.

During this visit to China, Dunkerque-Port also signed a Cooperation Charter with the Port of Shanghai, now ranked as the world's busiest port. The ceremony was an opportunity to recall that even before the first direct sea links to Chinese ports became operational in 2004, Dunkirk already held a leading position in trade between Europe and China. Since 2004, the expansion and sophistication of Shanghai's port facilities have been remarkable. Trade between Shanghai and Dunkerque-Port has grown continuously and holds great promise for the future. Because of the many economic and environmental challenges which will arise in coming years, the two parties have agreed to discuss and share the organisation of traffic, with the ongoing aim of optimisation. They intend to put in place a clear partnership agreement, allowing the exchange of information and opportunities in the fields of sea transport, rail transport, inland waterway transport, logistics, and port industry. The Charter was signed by Sun Jianping, General Director of Shanghai Port (Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority) and Martine Bonny, Chair of the Executive Committee of Dunkerque-Port. During the ceremony the Dunkirk delegation gave their counterparts the reproduction of an etching in the collection of Dunkirk Port Museum commemorating the siege of Dunkirk by Marshall de Turenne in May and June 1658.

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