Suzhou has new sister city in Peru

Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu province will facilitate exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation with Chancay, its newly established sister city in Peru's Lima region, local officials said.

Wei Shujie, director of the Suzhou Foreign Affairs Office, said the two cities will promote the sister-city relationship to boost cooperation in areas such as trade, port agreements and industrial park construction, contributing to the China-Peru comprehensive strategic partnership.

He said a key aspect of their cooperation will be the partnership between Suzhou Port and Chancay Port, with the shipping routes between them fostering the common development of the two countries.

The container throughput of Taicang Port, a major port area of Suzhou Port, exceeded 8 million twenty-foot equivalent units last year, ranking eighth in the country, while the first phase of the Chancay Port project has been designed with an annual throughput of 1 million TEUs, Wei said.

The Chancay Port, developed by China's COSCO Shipping Group and inaugurated on Thursday by the presidents of both countries, is a natural deepwater port on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean.

As a landmark project under China's Belt and Road Initiative, it is expected to boost Peruvian exports and strengthen trade between Latin America and Asia.

Chen Zuxiang, deputy general manager of Taicang International Container Terminal Co, said 160 sets of equipment required for port operations were dispatched in September and October in two batches from Taicang Port to Chancay Port.

He said Chancay Port is a multifunctional, automated terminal that provides a highly convenient channel for the export of goods from the Yangtze River Delta region, especially the Suzhou Port area, to South America.

Wang Minyong, director of the development and services bureau of the Jiangsu Taicang Port Management Committee, said that many shipping routes from China to Latin America had to pass through the Panama Canal in the past, resulting in longer distances and travel times.

"With the opening of the Chancay Port, the direct maritime route from the port to China will significantly shorten the transportation time by about 10 days to 23 days, reducing logistics costs by at least 20 percent," he said.

This will boost traders' confidence in bringing time-sensitive goods such as fruits and fresh produce from Latin America to Suzhou and the Yangtze River Delta region, and facilitate the transportation of industrial products from Suzhou and its surrounding areas to Latin America, Wang added.

Trade between Suzhou and Latin America has been growing in recent years. The value of bilateral trade between Suzhou and Peru in the first three quarters this year totaled $604 million, an increase of 29.3 percent compared with the same period last year, according to statistics from the Suzhou Foreign Affairs Office.

In the first 10 months, 121,000 passenger cars were exported from Taicang Port to 28 Latin American countries and regions, an increase of 40.6 percent year-on-year.

Guo Jun contributed to this story.