China has witnessed fast port development and has 1,430 ports with a total handling capacity of 4.17 billion tons, said Minister of Communications Zhang Chunxian at the 24th World Port Conference, which opened Monday in Shanghai.

China's fast-growing foreign trade has greatly boosted the country's port development, Zhang said.

The minister urged Chinese and foreign investors to take part in the country's port development as China is to expand its total port handling capacity to 6.1 billion tons by the year 2010, with container handling capacity reaching 140 million twenty feet equivalent units.

The Chinese government has paid much attention to port development and has worked out a series of strategies and plans to develop ports in the Yangtze Delta in the east, the Pearl River Delta in the south and the Bohai Bay rim in the north, said the minister.

The central government and various local authorities have also mapped out a series of preferential policies in terms of taxation,land use and special funds to support port development, he said.

Source: Xinhua