On April 18, Hubei International Logistics Summit & Ezhou Huahu Airport Promotional Event was held in our city. With a focus on building Ezhou Huahu Airport as a world-class air cargo hub, guests gathered here to exchange ideas, discuss collaboration and imagine the future. Chen Ping, Vice Governor of Hubei Province, attended the event and delivered a speech.
He Lijun, Deputy Secretary-General of Hubei Provincial People’s Government, attended the event. Sun Bing, Secretary of the Ezhou Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Ezhou Municipal People’s Congress, delivered a speech. Wang Xiwei, Deputy Secretary of the Ezhou Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Ezhou, presided over the event. Wang Jimin, Director of the Hubei Department of Commerce, Zhang Xiaomei, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, Hu Zhonghai, Director of the Hubei Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Isabelle Bedoujan, Customs attaché of the Belgian Embassy in China, and Philippe Delcourt, Consul of the Consulate General of Belgium in Shanghai, attended the event.
Chen Ping, on behalf of the provincial government, expressed congratulations on the summit. She pointed out that the Ezhou Huahu Airport is the world’s fourth and Asia’s first professional cargo hub airport. It is a major national productivity layout project, and serves as “an air gateway” for Hubei’s opening-up. The Ezhou Huahu Airport adopts the mainstream model of “cargo airport + leading airlines + multimodal transport + airport economy”, focuses on building a hub-and-spoke network, improves the “air-rail-water-road” multimodal transport system. It is speeding up the application for the construction of a platform for further opening-up, and cooperating with Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang, Huangshi and other national-level development zones. The city is focusing on attracting industries with a preference for airport-related business to explore the construction of an inland free trade port at the Ezhou Huahu Airport. Hubei and the airport are conveniently located. We hope that all guests will take the development of the Ezhou Huahu Airport as an opportunity to deepen collaboration and aim higher. We promise to pull together first-class resources, provide first-class services and build a first-class platform to turn the Ezhou Huahu Airport into a world-class air cargo hub.
Sun Bing, on behalf of Ezhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal People’s Government, expressed his sincere welcome to all the guests and friends, and his heartfelt gratitude for their long-term care and support. He said that Ezhou is known as “the root of Hubei and the source of Wuchang”. It a city with an abundance of historical and cultural heritage and beautiful ecological scenery know for “a hundred lakes” and a new airport city on the rise, with vibrant urban development and a thriving urban outlook. The 20th Party Congress report clearly puts forward the strategic task of “accelerating the construction of a new development pattern”, and the importance of smooth logistics in achieving this task. In recent years, we are committed to building the Ezhou Huahu Airport into a world-class modern air cargo hub, and we hope the development of the airport can speed up the construction of a new development pattern. The 12th Party Congress of Hubei Province proposed to “build a world-class comprehensive transportation hub linking Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang and Huangshi”, and “create a ‘dual hub’ of Wuhan Tianhe Airport and Ezhou Huahu Airport for passenger and cargo. This proposition clearly defined the Ezhou Huahu Airport’s vital position in Hubei’s construction of a pioneering zone for a new development pattern. This summit is held at the critical moment of construction and operation of the Ezhou Huahu Airport, which will certainly expediate the construction of Wuhan metropolitan demonstration area for collaborative development and build “an air gateway to the world” for Hubei’s opening-up. We will take this summit as an opportunity to further strengthen collaboration with domestic and foreign aviation hubs, aviation enterprises, and cargo airlines, to seek opportunities, share achievements, and draw development blueprints; to develop modern aviation logistics by giving full display to the Ezhou Huahu Airport, actively build a new hub for internal connectedness and external outreach, and explore the construction of an inland free trade port. With the goal of building a world-class business environment, we will do our best to serve domestic and foreign enterprises, and strive to lower the cost and improve business environment. Good friends feel close to each other even when they are far apart. Today, Ezhou is embracing the world in an open and inclusive manner, sincerely welcoming entrepreneurs and friends from all walks of life at home and abroad. We sincerely hope everyone can show your care and support for Ezhou, visit Ezhou, and invest in Ezhou.
At the event, Wang Zili, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Beihang University, Li Zongling, Director of Air Logistics Working Committee of China Air Transport Association, Eric Famaey, Vice Chairman of Belgium-China Economic and Commercial Council, Georg Türk, CEO of Verband Deutscher Champions, Eric Doumas, CEO of Ostend-Bruges Airport, Torsten Wefers, VP of Marketing and Sales of Liege Airport, delivered keynote speeches.
At the promotional event, Sun Bing and Wang Xiwei presented the appointment letters of Ezhou City Investment Ambassadors to Georg Türk, Eric Famaey and Eric Doumas respectively. These ambassadors will bring in more international resources for Ezhou to attract investment and talents. The Ezhou Municipal People’s Government signed cooperation agreements with the Belgium-China Economic and Commercial Council and Verband Deutscher Champions respectively. Ezhou will provide high-quality service and support for enterprises at home and abroad, and the two organisations can help to attract more enterprises and projects to settle in Ezhou. Hubei International Logistics Airport Co., Ltd, Shenzhen S.F. Taisen Holdings (Group) Co.,Ltd., and Liege Airport Co., Ltd. signed a three-party strategic cooperation agreement, which will deepen international logistics business collaboration and contribute to an efficient “Air Silk Road” for China-Europe economic and trade exchanges.
Yu Ke, member of the Standing Committee of the Ezhou Municipal Party Committee and Executive Vice Mayor, introduced the current development of the Ezhou Huahu Airport and made a presentation on the development of the aviation hub. Ezhou is located in the centre of the national economic geography and the south bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. A 1.5-hour flight circle can cover five national-level urban agglomerations, radiating 90% of the country's total economic output and 80% of the population, which can realize “reaching the whole country in one day and connecting the world every other day”. At present, the airport has opened 12 routes for domestic travel to the Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, connecting 18 waypoints, and four cargo routes to Shanghai, Shenzhen, Liege (Belgium)and Chennai (India). It is expected that by the end of 2023, Ezhou Huahu Airport will have 40 domestic cargo routes and 4 to 6 international cargo routes, initially forming a “1-2-3 circles” for passenger trips and the transportation of goods.
At the event, contracts for 17 projects were signed, covering modern logistics, supply chain management, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, optical and electronic information and other emerging industries. Since this year, we’ve signed 97 projects over 100 million yuan, an increase of 51.6% year-on-year; the amount signed was RMB 61.595 billion, an increase of 34.08% year-on-year, effectively providing new momentum for the city’s high-quality development.
On the same day, the guests attended the round table meeting to build the Ezhou Huahu Airport as a world-class air cargo hub, and visited the Airport and Gedian Economic Development Zone. The representatives of foreign trade enterprises, air cargo enterprises and cargo airlines also had an interactive exchange on site.
The event was co-hosted by Department of Commerce of Hubei Province (Port-of-Entry Office of the Hubei Provincial People’s Government), The Ezhou Municipal People’s Government, and organized by Hubei Airport Group and SFG. The relevant provincial units, relevant city and state comrades-in-charge, members of the leading team of the Party Committee, People’s Congress, Government and CPPCC, representatives of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in Central China, the Wuhan Representative Office of Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, the person in charge of Macao International Airport, executives of multinational companies, key business associations, well-known enterprise representatives, experts and scholars, international friends, etc. attended the event.