Guangdong and South China are important and longstanding partner for the Norwegian maritime industry. Ships built for Norwegian ship owners and the sale of Norwegian ship equipment and maritime services to Chinese shipyards constitute a significant part of bilateral trade.
“My ambition is to expand our co-operation in the maritime sector further”, says Norway’s Consul General in Guangzhou, Tormod C. Endresen. “China is becoming the world’s number one shipbuilder, and Guangdong will make advanced ship building a pillar industry. Norway has a highly advanced maritime industry looking for ways to combine quality and innovation with competitive costs. This makes Norway and the maritime industry in South China ideal partners. ” says the Consul General.
Shipping is a very energy efficient way of moving large quantities of goods and raw materials. At the same time maritime transport causes a considerable amount of pollution to air and water. The more than 50,000 commercial vessels on the world’s oceans cause almost as much air pollution as half of all the cars on the planet. Therefore, efforts to make maritime transport emit less greenhouse gases and other pollution are very important elements in our change towards a low carbon economy. The Guangdong Association of Shipbuilding Industry and Norway want to highlight the possibilities presented by “green shipping” by hosting a seminar on this topic at this year’s INMEX.
Ms. Ida Skard, Director General of Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry remarks “The new demands on the maritime transport to reduce emissions create opportunities for the shipbuilding industry. First movers into building of green ships will have a strong competitive advantage. I am at INMEX because I see strong potential in enhanced cooperation between the emerging maritime cluster in the PRD and the Norwegian maritime technology cluster.” “The ability to build “green” vessels will become an important competitive advantage for ship yards as new regulations come into force. The shipbuilding industry in South China can use this opportunity to move into the elite division.” says Tormod C. Endresen.
China and Norway are significant maritime nations. China has the world’s fourth largest merchant fleet - Norway has number five. Norwegian vessels make around 1100 calls on Chinese ports every year, averaging three calls every 24 hours. Co-operation in the maritime and energy sectors has for a long time been an important part of the economic and scientific co-operation between China and Norway.