The 10th Maritime Silk Road Port Cooperation Forum (MPF) Opening Ceremony took place on Wednesday in Ningbo, bringing together representatives from international organizations, port authorities and shipping industry leaders to discuss global maritime governance, supply chain security and green development.
Representatives from the International Maritime Organization(IMO), the International Association of Ports and Harbors(IAPH), as well as ports from countries including Spain, Nicaragua and Sierra Leone attended the event.
Delegates take photos of a humanoid robot on display. (Photo: Ningbo Evening News)
David Osborn, director of the Marine Environment Division at the IMO, said sustainable shipping and the decarbonization of maritime supply chains have become key priorities for the global shipping industry.
He noted that accelerating the green transition of shipping requires stronger international cooperation and joint efforts among governments, ports, shipping companies and industry organizations.
During the opening ceremony, Ningbo Zhoushan Port signed a Green Shipping Corridor Initiative with several major international ports, including Port of Valencia, HAROPA Port, Port of Abu Dhabi, Port of Algeciras and Port of Felixstowe.
The initiative aims to strengthen Asia-Europe green shipping routes by promoting the use of zero-carbon fuels, intelligent management systems and clean technologies, while exploring replicable solutions for reducing carbon emissions in the shipping sector.
Several cooperation agreements were unveiled at the forum. (Photo: Ningbo Evening News)
Green shipping corridors are regarded as an important innovation in the global maritime industry's low-carbon transition, requiring coordinated participation from ports, shipping enterprises, governments and industry institutions along major trade routes.
The forum also released the China Multimodal Transport Development Report (2025), which showed that China's container multimodal transport volume reached 140 million TEUs in 2025, up 15.7 percent year-on-year.
A series of parallel events, including a China-Africa sister city and sister port cooperation salon and a promotion event for Wilhelmshaven, Germany, were also held during the forum. Discussions focused on supply chain resilience, green and low-carbon development, smart innovation and the upgrading of shipping services.
(Produced by Ningbo Evening News)