Annual Report 2021

29 ANNUAL REPORT 2021 FUTURE PROSPECTS Looking into 2022, the global economy will continue to show a general tone of recovery, but the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to disrupt the normal economic order, leading to an uncertain outlook of global economic recovery. Emerging markets and developing economies will face uncertainties in economic development subject to vaccination progress against COVID-19. The social and political turmoil in certain emerging economies will drag down economic growth, notably in regions such as the Middle East and North Africa. In January 2022, the IMF predicted the global economy to grow by 4.4% in 2022, representing a decrease of 1.5 percentage points as compared to that of 2021. The developed economies will grow at 3.9%, down 1.1 percentage points as compared to that of 2021; and the emerging markets and developing economies will grow at 4.8%, down 1.7 percentage points as compared to that of 2021. Global trade volume (including goods and services) will grow by 6.0%, down 3.3 percentage points as compared to that of 2021. In 2022, China will continue to implement the new development concept, accelerate the construction of new development patterns, promote high-quality development, continue to maintain the strength and resilience of its economic development, stimulate the huge potential of economic growth, and continue to make outstanding contributions to the recovery of the global economy. According to the IMF’s latest report, China’s economy growth rate will be 4.8% in 2022. Looking into 2022, although shipping routes, shipping capacity and supply of containers are expected to gradually return to normal, and the divergence between supply and demand of shipping capacity in the global container shipping market will be reduced, the container shortage and port congestion will still need to be improved in the short term. Therefore, container freight rates will fluctuate at a medium to high level with high volatility, with a low probability of falling back to the low level before the pandemic. In the future, positive factors such as the sustained recovery of the global economy and trade are expected to have a positive impact on the port industry. In 2022, China will continue to strengthen its economic base, enhance its ability to innovate in science and technology, adhere to multilateralism, take the initiative to align itself with high-standard international economic and trade rules, help to stabilize the industrial and supply chains, and also increase its efforts to attract foreign investment so as to promote deepen reform and high-quality development with a high level of opening up. With the implementation of various trade agreements, it is expected that the level of trade and investment facilitation will be further improved, and the cooperation between China and its partners will be further strengthened, and then the momentum of import and export of commodities will be further strengthened, which will benefit for the port industry. In addition, ongoing progress in the construction of intelligent ports and green ports will also rejuvenate the development of the port industry. Based on the above analysis and judgements, the Group will adhere to the existing strategic principle in 2022, and strive to realize its strategic goal of “to be a world’s leading comprehensive port service provider” through implementing the high-quality development concept, focusing on endogenous growth, driving a new development journey, and improving digitalisation, marketisation, internationalisation, platformisation and intellectualisation. With respect to the construction of homebase ports, the West Shenzhen Port Zone will closely follow the strategic goal of making China a strong construction and transportation country. The Group will continuously improve service quality, keep infrastructure construction, strengthen the operation of the blockchain platform for logistics and trade facilitation to improve competitiveness. For overseas homebase ports, the Group will strive to build a strong regional port, leverage the advantages of port area linkage with enhancing the integrated service port services and strengthening cooperation with all parties such as shipping companies, so as to continue to build a world-class shipping centre in South Asia.