Yichang has built over 100 new ships every year, accounting for more than half of the totalquantity ofship construction in Hubei province, and its ship standardizedrate has exceeded 90percent, ranking the first in the provinceaccording to the 2020 press briefing of the Municipal Port and Shipping Construction and Maintenance Centeron January 6

　　In recent years, along with therapid development of theshipbuildingindustry, there are more than 40 shipbuilding enterprises and over 100shipping companies in Yichang. The annual output value of the shipbuildingbusinessin the wholecity has hit 9 billion yuan.In addition, 90 percent10,000-ton demonstration shiptypeswith large length-to-width ratio have been built in Yichang, becoming a name card of this city’s shipbuildingsector.

　　During the currentthree years, 24 multi-functional recycling boatsfeaturing environmental protectionhavebeen built in Yichang in order to keep the water clear.Special inspectionsof the improvement of ships’ anti-pollution facilities and equipment havebeen carried out. Among them, all anti-pollution renovation projects of Yichang ships with above 100 gross tonnage have met the requirements of ship inspection regulations.At the same time, the city has promoted the zero-discharge of domestic sewage from ships along themain channel of the Yangtze Riverand the transformation of ships’power facilities. An array of inter-provincial tourist passenger ships hasbeen transformed to use shore power when they are in port, which has greatly reduced the exhaust emissions.

　　Upgrading of old ships is crucial as well. In accordance with the requirements of safety and environmental protection, our city encourages non-standard and old ships to get off the market.And 137 standard ships have been built in the past three years.

　　In order to make servicesmore efficient, Yichang took the lead in establishing electronic filesof ship inspection nationwide and developed afile management system of ship inspection technology to ensure the permanent preservation of ship filesin electronic form.Meanwhile, the"eship inspection" information management platformhas been established, which can handle the business online such as inspection application, management, record, approval and evaluationand provide smart application programs likeship inspection reference bookand ship inspection notebook, so as toensureinformationtransparencyand improve serviceconvenienceof ship inspection management.

　　It is known that,in a bid to promote the further agglomerationof the industrial chain of the shipbuilding industry, the city is projected to set upa SupportBase of Yichang ShipInspectionService and Surveyor Training Baseof Hubei Province in Zhijiang to provide cutting-edge technical support such as new green powerfor shipbuildingand boost the transitionfrom "Madein Yichang" to "Createdin Yichang".(reporter Zhou Yuan, correspondent Zhang Jian from Three Gorges Daily)