Hong Kong mustn’t miss the boat on the Pinglu Canal and Asean trade
The game-changing canal is a physical response to an economic reality: Asia’s growth is becoming more regional and more connected
Designed for vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes, the 134.2km (83.4 mile) waterway stretches from the Xijin reservoir in Hengzhou, an emerging city in Guangxi, to the Gulf of Tonkin (known as the Beibu Gulf in China), providing southwestern inland provinces with a shorter and more cost-effective route to global markets.
Strategically, it anchors the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a rapidly growing artery that was first conceptualised under the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative endorsed in 2015 by President Xi Jinping and Lee Hsien Loong, then prime minister of Singapore.
