Building the New Silk Road together
Erich Staake (front right), Chief Executive Officer of Duisburger Hafen AG (duisport), signed cooperation agreements with high-ranking Chinese business partners in Hong Kong, attended by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel and North-Rhine Westphalia transportation minister Michael Groschek (right): (from left) Hu Zheng, Director der CMG, Zhang Rui, General Manager of CML, Zhao Huxing, Deputy Chairman of CMG © Manfred Knopp
Erich Staake (front right), Chief Executive Officer of Duisburger Hafen AG (duisport), signed cooperation agreements with high-ranking Chinese business partners in Hong Kong, attended by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel and North-Rhine Westphalia transportation minister Michael Groschek (right): (from left) Hu Zheng, Director der CMG, Zhang Rui, General Manager of CML, Zhao Huxing, Deputy Chairman of CMG © Manfred Knopp
Duisburg - Duisburger Hafen AG (duisport) and China Merchants Logistics Holdings Co. Ltd. (CML), the logistics division of the China Merchants Group (CMG), have entered into a strategic and project-based cooperation agreement. The agreement was signed in Hong Kong during the recent trip to China by Germany's industry minister Sigmar Gabriel - a trip that also included North-Rhine Westphalia minister of transportation Michael Groschek and duisport CEO Erich Staake. CMG is a leading group in the transport/infrastructure and finance sector, among others, and is based in Hong Kong. CMG has 31 ports in 18 countries, and operates 1148 logistics centers in the major metropolitan regions. Today, approximately 20 trains a week already run between the Port of Duisburg and various destinations in China. Along this new trading route, which operates under the Chinese “one belt, one road” Silk Road initiative, CMG and duisport intend to implement joint projects in the entire trans-Eurasian region. Besides establishing better connections to markets in Western Europe, China also wants to use the Silk Road initiative to continue to develop the economies of the  provinces in central China and in the western part of the country. During his visit to China, Erich Staake also signed cooperation agreements with Chengdu International Railway Port Investment Co. Ltd.(CDIRPI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chengdu Industry Investment Co. Ltd. (CDII), in the industrial metropolis of Chengdu. The company plans to significantly expand the volume of goods transported from China to Europe directly via Duisburg. duisport has been engaged in the large Chinese cities along the Silk Road Chengdu, Chongqing and Urumqi in the north-western part of the country for some time. Staake is confident that the cooperation agreements with the Chinese partners will also lead to significant increases in handling volume at the Port of Duisburg. “We want to develop duisport into the leading European transportation hub for Chinese transport.”