Taiwan International Port Corp is to host the 102nd Annual Conference of the Association of Pacific Ports in Kaohsiung next month.
Founded in 1913, the association was previously known as the Pacific Coast Association of the Port Authorities.
According to the corporation, the nation’s four international seaports — Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien — joined the association in 2003, 2001, 2002 and 2005 respectively, while they were still under the administration of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Maritime and Port Bureau.
Taichung and Keelung ports hosted the conferences in 2004 and 2010. The four seaports later joined the association under the banner of the after 2012.
Next month is to be the first conference held by the state-owned port company, with 32 members of the association to join, the corporation said.
Corporation president Lee Tay-hsin (李泰興) is to chair the conference, it said.
Corporation vice president Liou Shy-tzong (劉詩宗) said the conference is an opportunity for seaport officials to gather, exchange and verify information about similar operations around the world, particularly from seaports in China.
It is also a chance to learn from valuable experiences of other seaports in terms of the changes they have made to improve their operations, Liou said.
“Taiwanese seaports cannot afford to be absent from the global supply chain, otherwise the nation would be marginalized,” Liou said.
“Japan is experienced in redeveloping the seaports. South Korea, on the other hand, has reached a bottleneck in its development of the Busan Port,” Liou said.
“Taiwanese seaports could face similar problems in the future,” Liou added.
The corporation is seeking to form partnerships with second-tier Chinese seaports.
The conference is to begin on Aug.17 and run through Aug.19, focusing on issues related to the development of “green” ports.
The corporation invited cruise ship operators to the conference to investigate potential routes in southern Taiwan.
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