As part of efforts to establish it as an important logistics terminal in Asia and the world Shanghai is pushing the logistics industry to be one of its key economic development sectors by 2010.

According to the city’s 11th five-year plan for the logistics industry, Shanghai expects the industry to grow 10% annually over the next five years. The pillar industry will then account for more than 13% of Shanghai’s gross domestic product.

Wu Zhengguo, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said, ‘Accelerating the development of logistics in Shanghai plays an important role in forming a better industry structure focusing on the service sector.’

In the next five years the whole range of services which together form the logistics industry will be developed, including port transfer, manufacturing, cross-cities delivery, international transfer, purchasing, distribution as well as third-party logistics and cooperation between the Yangtze Delta cities.

Shanghai is building more logistics zones including the Yangshan Deep-Water Logistic zone, Waigaoqiao Bonded Logistics Park, Pudong airport logistics park as well as Northwest Logistics Park.

The importance of logistics is seen in the handling capacity of the Yangshan Deep Water Port, which handled 1.6 million tons of cargo worth $22.7 billion in the first four months of the year.