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COSCO Wins MAED's - Wednesday, December 01, 2004 at 10:12
On November 23, 2004, Capt. Wei Jiafu, President & CEO of COSCO Group, attended a luncheon ceremony for the first annual 'Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Awards' hosted by the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development (MAED). More than 400 US government officials, business representatives, non-governmental organizations from Massachusetts participated in the event. The 'Economic Booster Award' was presented to COSCO, the University of Massachusetts, and the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts. Some other 16 US organizations were given the 'Economic Impact Award' at the luncheon. COSCO is the only foreign company to win this award.
During the ceremony, Capt. Wei received the 'Economic Booster Award' from Susan Houston, Executive Director of MAED. The award is to recognize COSCO's significant contributions to job creations, investment, and local communities in the state of Massachusetts. In Capt. Wei's speech, he highly commented on the successful model of COSCO's cooperation with the Massachusetts Port Authority, expressed his thanks to COSCO's staff, Massport, Massachusetts government, COSCO's advisor for their efforts to develop COSCO's business in Massachusetts. Capt. Wei then announced that COSCO will soon add two new containerships into its Far East/Boston service, and will thus be able to establish direct shipping service between Shanghai and Boston. The improvement of COSCO's Boston service will also reduce the delivery time. 'In the first 10 months of this year, growth of containerized traffic volumes to Boston carried by COSCO has increased by 67% compared to the same period last year. COSCO will continue to strengthen its commitments to better service Massachusetts and to support the Sino-US trades in a healthy and sustainable way.' said Capt. Wei.H.E. Yang Jiechi, Chinese Ambassador to the United States came all the way to Boston from Washington D.C. to attend the ceremony. He congratulated COSCO's success, paying a tribute to the pioneering spirits of COSCO in creating successful partnership in the US. Ambassador Yang said the MAED's 'Economic Booster Award' is not only an award in honor of COSCO, but also the one for China. China and US are both engines of world's economy, and the bilateral trades between China and US in first three quarters of this year have equaled the total of last year. It's estimated that the total Sino-US trade will reach 160 billion dollars in 2004. Such a rapid growth of trade cannot be achieved without the help of companies like COSCO. Ambassador Yang also affirmed that Boston played an important role in promoting the relationship between China and US. He stressed that the business communities should work together not only to create new trade but to bring evolution to the bilateral relationship.
Chairman Kevin Quinn of MAED pointed that COSCO's shipping services from the Port of Boston to Asia has had a substantial and positive impact on the economy of Massachusetts by providing lower shipping costs to local businesses, resulting in retained jobs at the Port of Boston. Massachusetts' exports to China have nearly doubled over the past two years, making China one of the state's biggest foreign markets. That is why MAED present 'Economic Booster Award' to COSCO.
MAED, a non-profit organization, was jointly sponsored and organized by private and public sectors in 1993. Its goal is to make recommendations to the Governor's Council on Economic Growth & Technology, and to ensure the competitiveness and healthy growth of the State's economy. For the first time in history, MAED held an awarding ceremony in the name of 'Economic Booster Award'.
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