Containers await loading at Shanghai Port in this undated picture. [File photo: Hudong.com]

Shanghai should improve financial and logistic services as well as attract more maritime professionals if it hopes to achieve its goal of becoming an international shipping center, members of the city's top political advisory body said Tuesday.

"We have built up basic infrastructure for an international shipping center, and we have a large (cargo) throughput," said Zhou Chi, a member of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and board chairman of the Shanghai Tongsheng Investment (Group) Co.

"The next step is the need to develop more financial products to support shipping and improve modern logistics to make sure we can function as a good service provider," Zhou said.

Shanghai Tongsheng was set up to manage investments for the Yangshan Deep-Water Port project, a key component in Shanghai's effort to build the city into a global shipping hub.

Ren Xianzheng, another member of the local committee of the CPPCC and general economist of Yangshan port, suggested resources in China should be integrated to give the port a larger presence.

"People need to dilute the concept that Yangshan is a port owned by Shanghai. Despite being located in the city, Yangshan belongs to China and the world," Ren said. "Governments and investors in other cities should be more active in allowing Yangshan to share their resources and avoid unnecessary competition."

Ren also suggested Shanghai should enhance efforts to attract professionals in the shipping industry.

"We have seen many preferential policies to attract financial professionals. The same efforts should be made to lure professionals in our industry," Ren said.

Shanghai's ports handled 590 million tons of dry bulk goods last year, the biggest in the world, and 25 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) as the world's second-largest.

To enhance Yangshan's competitiveness, Shanghai is considering introducing a tax refund to exporters of dry bulk goods and containers departing from Qingdao and Wuhan that use Yangshan port as a transfer hub.