By Jiang Xuan, People’s Daily

Nigeria’s first deep seaport was recently inaugurated in the southwestern state of Lagos. Funded, constructed and operated by the China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC), the Lekki deep seaport is one of the biggest in West Africa.

The Lekki deep seaport, which has a breakwater extending 2.5 kilometers into the Gulf of Guinea and five giant container gantry cranes, is located in the Lagos Free Trade Zone and jointly developed by the CHEC and Nigerian Ports Authority. The project was commenced in June 2020 and completed in October last year.

A 45-year concession has been awarded based on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract. The port is able to handle 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units on a yearly basis.

Lagos State is an important hub of international trade in the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa. For a long time, foreign trade and economic development in the state had been impeded by underdeveloped port facilities, poor cargo distribution capability and high logistics cost.

Fortunately, these problems are expected to be solved following the completion of the Lekki deep seaport.

Managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority Mohammed Bello Koko noted that the deep seaport is the first automated port in Nigeria that allows rapid customs clearance and will significantly reduce the time of cargo handling.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the deep seaport will open up new prospects for Nigeria’s economic development, provide opportunities for the country’s exports, especially agro-allied products in the international marketplace, and increase foreign exchange inflow.

The port will also create abundant job opportunities and thus help with poverty reduction. According to Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, it is estimatedthat the overall economic benefit will reach $361 billion over the next 45 years.

At the inauguration ceremony of the deep seaport, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State said that the Lekki deep seaport, as the biggest in Nigeria, can accommodate the world’s largest container vessels.

Previously at the completion ceremony of the project, the Governor praised the CHEC for finishing the deep seaport project on time, saying the port will create nearly 200,000 jobs for Nigeria directly and indirectly in the years to come. Unquestionably, the port will make Lagos a maritime logistics center in Central and West Africa, he added.

Itoke Community and Idotun Community are less than 3 kilometers away from the Lekki deep seaport. In the past decades, the land and houses of some residents were always flooded by sea waves in the rainy season.

To solve the problem, the CHEC, upon investigation, built two breakwaters totaling 539 meters and added an artificial beach covering nearly 800,000 square meters to the east of the port.

Shortly after the rainy season ended last year, the heads of the two communities visited the project site with fish and shrimps they caught to extend their gratitude. They said it was the safest rainy season they had in the past decades, all the land and houses were intact. “Thank the Chinese enterprise for doing this for us,” they noted.

This is a epitome of the Lekki deep seaport contributing to local livelihood development. According to an employee working at the port, the port has already created about 2,000 jobs for local communities during its construction and trained a batch of local professionals. Over 80 percent of technical and management jobs at the port are taken by local people. Through systematic training and instruction, most of the local workers have acquired professional and modern work skills.

Magbon-Segun Community sits next to the Lekki deep seaport. Many young people from the Community work at the port.

“We are proud to be a neighbor of the Lekki deep seaport,” said Dawuda, head of the Community adding that the Community has completely changed thanks to the port. Today, the clean and beautiful beach there is attracting large number of tourists and the spare houses in the Community have all been rented.

The operation of the deep seaport has advanced integrated development of the region. Free trade areas, an oil refinery and other projects are well underway. The construction of a new international airport is also expected to be started this year.

Hassan Bello, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’Council, said the Lekki deep seaport is of vital significance for Nigeria in achieving economic prosperity and will completely change the image of Nigerian shipping industry. It will drive the country’s growth and change the shipping and economic pattern of Nigeria and even the Central and West Africa at large.

Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Cui Jianchun said the deep seaport is expected to become a new engine of economic development that will empower the whole country, and is of huge significance for the development of the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa.

By Chang Biluo, People’s Daily

It’s hard to imagine that a factory has a “farm” on its rooftop, but this is happening in the plant of Mexin Messon Doors Industry Co., Ltd, a manufacturer of windows and doors based in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality.

The rooftop “farm” covers over 20,000 square meters, where employees of the factory can grow vegetables, fruits, cereals and flowers in their off time. When the rain stops, there is a mixed fragrance of plants. The window and door manufacturer was recognized as a national-level green factory in 2019.

A green factory, according to an evaluation guideline implemented by China in 2018, features intensive land use, adopts hazard-free raw materials, practices clean production, recycles waste and employs low-carbon energy.

As a major manufacturing hub, Chongqing has vigorously promoted green transition among its enterprises. According to a plan of the municipality, Chongqing will be home to over 30 green industrial parks and 300 green factories at municipal level and above by 2025, and it will strive to lower the energy consumption per unit of value added of enterprises above designated size by 14.5 percent from 2020.

Manufacturers in Chongqing have been “gardenizing” their factories over the recent years. In the general assembly base of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Haizhuang Windpower Co., Ltd. in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area, trees and flowers can be seen everywhere, and there are even ponds. The vegetation cover helps the base maintain a sound ecology, always keeps it in appropriate temperature, and reduces the noise diffusion.

Industrial enterprises in the municipality have spared no effort to cut energy consumption and promote green development. They have managed to make full use of sunlight to reduce electricity consumption, greened their plant buildings to consume less energy, and adopted shock absorption and noise insulation techniques to make production quieter.

How could green transition measures be implemented while production remains non-stop? Chongqing’s answer is to lower energy consumption and improve efficiency.

“Clinker calcination is a key part of cement production,” said Han Wei, assistant manager of a cement producer in Bishan district of Chongqing. Coal is the major fuel for calcination, if traditional equipment, techniques and materials were employed during the process, it would consume high energy and lead to pollution, Han noted.

Over the recent years, Han’s company has managed to replace part of the limestone needed in the production with calcium carbonate and calcium oxide, which reduces the emission of carbon dioxide generated in the secondary combustion of limestone. This procedure alone lowers the company’s cost by over 8 million yuan ($1.16 million) each year.

Relying on big data and intelligent technologies, green enterprises in Chongqing have gradually realized targeted management of energy.

Chongqing Sokon Powertrain Co., Ltd. has a national-level green factory in Changshou Economic and Technological Development Area. “We adopt engine cold test technologies which allow us to obtain over 1,000 parameters of an engine without starting it. This cuts annual carbon dioxide emissions by more than 600 tons,” said Li Ping with the company.

To make innovations of green products through efficient utilization of energy resources remains another important approach to energy conservation and efficiency improvement.

A workshop of Chinese home appliance giant Gree in Jiulongpo district has worked to tackle technological bottlenecks and lowered its annual energy consumption by 20 percent. “Fuyao,” the first deep-sea floating wind power equipment of China rolled off the production line last year. With a single-unit capacity of 6,250 kW, the equipment is able to supply 30,000 households with clean electricity.

Many enterprises in Chongqing have started greening themselves and building green factories to further improve their performance and profit. Circular production of enterprises, circular combination of industries and circular upgrading of industrial parks are advancing vigorously in the city.

By Zhang Niansheng, Liu Hui, People’s Daily

Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) located in Malaysia, as a model of China-Malaysia cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has promoted pragmatic cooperation between China and Malaysia and deepened the friendship between the two countries.

Over the past 10 years, the industrial park has borne rich fruits. It has attracted 12 projects with a combined investment value of more than 40 billion yuan ($5.81 billion). These projects have generated industrial output value totaling over 35 billion yuan, created about 5,000 long-term jobs, and contributed an estimated 10 million tons to the increase in the annual throughput of the Kuantan Port, a multipurpose port in Malaysia.

In February 2013, the MCKIP was officially launched in the capitalcityKuantanofPahang state, Malaysia. Located in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) of Malaysia, the tranquil city of Kuantan is an over three-hour drive away from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur and adjacent to the Kuantan Port.

The MCKIP, together with the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park (CMQIP) situated in China, represents a groundbreaking innovation: the model of “Two Countries, Twin Parks.”

“During the past 10 years, the MCKIP has become one of the most successful industrial parks in the ECER,” said Baidzawi Che Mat, chief executive officer (CEO) of the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC).

“The ‘Two Countries, Twin Parks’ model built by Malaysia and China is successful,” he noted.

Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. was the first entrant in the MCKIP. It only took 18 months for the project to set up its full-process production line in the industrial park.

With its annual output surpassing the designed annual production capacity of 3.5 million tons, Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. has emerged as one of the largest and most advanced steel businesses with full-process technologies for steel products in Malaysia, and its products are sold to global markets.

Steve Hu Jiulin, chief technology officer of Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd., can still remember vividly the local situation he saw when he first arrived in Kuantan city.

“When I came here in 2014, this place was mountainous and swampy. And the ground works alone took us more than a year,” Hu said.

“Who would think that there used to be a mountain right at the site of the office building,” he said, pointing at the office building where he works.

The premises of Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. now boast wide and clean roads and neatly arranged buildings, including office building, factory building, and dormitory.

“The technological design and equipmentof the project of Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. are all from China. They are the most advanced ones of the industry,” Hu said.

Hu recalled that during a local official’s inspection tour in Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd., the official asked as soon as he entered the premises of the company, “Why is this project so clean that it doesn’t seem like a steel mill?”

After learning that the project has followed standards for environmental protection higher than the local standards, and that all the waste heat and gases produced during the production processes are recycled for power generation in a bid to promote circular economy and energy conservation and carbon emission reduction, the official’s eyes widened in surprise. 

Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. has more than 4,000 employees, among whom most are local people who enjoy much higher salaries than the average local salary.

The east coast where Kuantan city is located is relatively backward in terms of economic development, a local employee told People’s Daily, adding that local people, especially young people, used to go to the relatively developed west coast states of the country for employment.

Now that Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. has been settled in the locality, he can work near his home and has significantly improved his quality of life, the young man said. 

The development of the MCKIP has boosted investment in Malaysia and China while creating jobs in various fields from production to management, said Baidzawi.

Local contractors and suppliers have also participated in the development of the industrial park, which has benefited a good number of local small and medium-sized enterprises, according to him.

The Kuantan Port is the largest port on the east coast of Malaysia, as well as a pillar for the development of the MCKIP. The Malaysian government has listed it as one of the key ports of the country.

In 2013, the Beibu Gulf Port Group in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region became a shareholder of the Kuantan Port, and this China-Malaysia cooperation has brought new vitality to the Malaysian port that enjoys a history of more than 40 years.

The Chinese company, together with the Malaysian operators, jointly upgraded the Kuantan Port and are working to expand the port.

According to Ye Jingtao, general manager of operations of Kuantan Port Consortium Sdn. Bhd. which manages the Kuantan Port, equipment at the new port are all imported from China due to limited local supply. To ensure that the employees can well operate the equipment, the Beibu Gulf Port Group has launched training programs and sent employees to Chinese ports for learning.

Under the joint efforts from both the Chinese and Malaysian sides, the handling capacity of the Kuantan Port has been constantly improved. Its throughput and revenue doubled year on year in 2015. And three years later, it became the largest public port for bulk cargoes of Malaysia and two new 150,000-ton deep water ports were built.

Baidzawi said that the MCKIP and the CMQIP are expected to build more complete industrial and supply chains between Malaysia and China, and deepen their pragmatic cooperation in trade, investment, technological cooperation, tourism, culture and other sectors, as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has taken effect.