Market demand drives gl

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China’s global expansion in the port sector is driven by global market demand, Chinese experts said on Tuesday after the inauguration of another major port invested by China in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

COSCO Shipping Ports (CSP), a subsidiary of the shipping giant COSCO Shipping, announced the operation of the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal in UAE’s Khalifa Port on Monday, marking a significant achievement of the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative (BRI) and China-UAE cooperation.

Experts said the development showed China’s growing network of global port ownership is powering ahead despite rising skepticism in the West over alleged economic security concerns. Such concerns are ungrounded, they said.

Li Weijian, a professor at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said that there is a sense of urgency among countries in the Gulf region to prepare for the time when their oil revenues dry up.

The inauguration of the terminal, which can accommodate 20,000 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) size container and handle 1.5 million TEUs a year of cargo initially, raised the global ranking of Khalifa Port from the No.89 spot into the top 25.

“The opening of this massive port in the UAE is the result of the country’s earlier transformation toward a service-oriented economy and a step ahead in ocean shipping, as a successfully built and nurtured port will make it harder for regional copycats,” Li told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Wu Minghua, a Shanghai-based independent shipping industry analyst, said the operation of the port is a key step in COSCO’s strategy to boost its strength in shipping services linking Asia and Europe.

“The trade war between China and the