The Zhuhai Port on Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in south China has recorded over 25 million cross-border vehicle crossings since its opening, according to the bridge's border inspection station under the Zhuhai immigration authority on Monday.
The peak daily volume of cross-border vehicles reached 29,700, with passenger vehicle clearance volume ranking first in the country.
More than 4.25 million vehicles have passed through the Zhuhai highway port of the bridge this year, of which 2.48 million are Hong Kong and Macao single-plate vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 8.1 percent.
The 55-kilometer bridge linking the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and the city of Zhuhai, all in south China, opened to traffic on October 23, 2018. It is the world's longest bridge-and-tunnel sea crossing.
The bridge has shortened the driving time from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macao from three hours to about 45 minutes.
Zhuhai port on Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge logs over 25 mln vehicle crossings since opening
Around 300 representatives and guests from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies and eight international organizations joined the 16th APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting in Beijing on Thursday and Friday.
They had discussions on three priority directions: high-quality inclusive energy service, mutual empowerment of artificial intelligence and energy, and energy governance synergy in the Asia-Pacific region.
"We chose high-quality inclusive energy service, artificial intelligence and energy, and energy security synergy as three directions for discussions, aiming to address the common concerns of various sides. Inclusive energy service focuses on inclusive development so as to help various economies benefit more from energy-transition outcomes. The integration of digital and intelligent technologies represents the future direction in driving energy transformation through technological innovation. Energy security synergy helps solidify the guarantee for basic needs and ensure the stability of energy supply chains in the region," said Xiong Minfeng, deputy head of the Department of International Cooperation under the National Energy Administration.
The meeting integrated the idea of "high-quality development" into the APEC regional energy cooperation framework, and defined high-quality energy services as "safe and reliable, sufficient and resilient, universally accessible, sustainable and affordable", guiding the focus of regional cooperation to shift from basic energy coverage to the improvement of service quality.
"To model the market in a way that can better work for renewables instead of fossil fuel, so at least definitely not having subsidies to the fossil fuel activities, and pave the ground for all forms of electricity or power. We have to ensure that these tumultuous increase of the use of renewables should also be accompanied by the recycling of the workers that are coming from the fossil fuel system to the new one based on renewables," said Francesco La Camera, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
"So I think this will be important to realize how we can ensure that energy system could be more affordable, reliable for everyone, that for us to ensure energy security, the choice is renewables. And for making renewables work, we need grids and pipelines that are inter-connected, flexible, and make the electrons and molecules moving from one country to another to ensure energy security and the wellbeing of everyone," he added.
APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting eyes inclusive service, AI empowerment, governance synergy
