The Office Department of the State Council has approved seven pilot free trade zones interactive with their adjacent ports in the country��s cities including Dalian.  
 

��The interactive development of Dalian Free Trade Zone and Dalian Port is of great importance to the construction of international navigation center in northeast Asia and the revitalization of northeast China��s old industrial base.��, said Zhang Shikun, director of Dalian Free Trade Zone Commission in an interview to Dalian Daily.

 
At present, the 1.25-square-kilometer construction land of Dalian Free Trade Zone approved by the State Council has been fully used for projects without any space left for the new logistic projects, which, Zhang said, limit the function of the bonded zone, said Zhang.
 

Interactive development of the Free Trade Zone and the port, a strategic measure for Dalian in constructing the international navigation center in Northeast Asia.

��Large quantities of cargo that can be directly transported or transferred at Dalian Port has been transferred at its rivals in Japan and S. Korea due to the Dalian Port��s complex procedures and single function without interactive operation with the free trade zone��, told Zhang, ��That has led Dalian Port to weak competitiveness, said Zhang��.
 

The added container volume at Busan Port was 1.38 million TEU in the year 2002, 60 percent from containers transferred at ports in north China, learned sources with Dalian Bonded Zone.
 

S. Korea has made a specific goal and development measures for Busan Port so as to compete with ports in China and to vie for the position of international navigation center in Northeast Asia.
 

The estimated containers at Busan Port will be 14 million TEU by the year 2010 with the rising speed of 30 to 50 percent of which are transferred from China. Busan Port and Ulsan Port in S. Korea have become the important transferred ports for China��s container transportation and crude oil import.
 

Favorable infrastructure and special comparative edges
 

With fully functional and subsidiary facilities, Dalian Port is one of the important ports in coastal cities of China in terms of conglomerating transportation of containers, foodstuff, ore, coal, metals, oil and automobiles.
 

The economic target of Dalian Free Trade Zone has been among the first rank in bonded zones across the country in recent years.
 

The interactive development of Dalian Free Trade Zone and Dalian Port has made the following competitive edges.
 

Advantageous in geography. Located at the central places of the economic circles around Bohai and northeast Asia, Dalian is the ideal place for economic cooperation for northeast China and Japanese islands as well as Korean Peninsular and the far-east area of Russia.
 

Key logistics projects. Dalian Port, at present, operates above 70 percent of shipping and over 90 percent of container transportation in northeast China. The enormous capacity of supplying and the growing need for consumption in the northeast will make Dalian logistics stronger. 
 

Dalian has built the well-constructed and functional infrastructure with the national key networks of communications leading in communication optic cable across the nation and subsidiary with digital microwave and satellite communications.
 

Preferential policies for interactive development
 

The city��s government has planned a fundamental thinking way of interactive development of Dalian Free Trade Zone and Dalian Port.
 

Focusing on revitalizing northeast old industrial base and building international navigation center in northeast Asia, Dalian is to make full use of facilities and resource at bonded zone and the port;
 

To build the new framework of interactive development of zone and port in line with international transfer, international distribution, international purchasing, transferring trade in a bid to realize the ��integrations of plan and construction, policies and functions, management and service, logistics and operation, economy and effect�� between Dalian Free Trade Zone and Dalian Port.
 

The final goal is to build Dagushan Penisular into an international logistics port by developing modern international logistics and constructing international navigation center in northeast Asia.
 

��The realizing of the nation��s interactive pilot of free trade zone and port is just the first part Dalian Free Trade Zone has generally planned��, said Zhang, ��We wi