I. The key for the construction of Shanghai international shipping center--the status of international shipping service center

 The development of economy and trade takes the credit for the establishment of Shanghai international shipping center. In January, 1996, the State Council made public the decision of constructing Shanghai international shipping center. Through years of arduous work, a series of development projects like Shanghai Shipping Exchange, Yangshan Port, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Bonded Logistics Park, Shanghai Yangshan Bonded Area have been successively built and put into use. As a result, the throughput of Shanghai Port has been constantly climbing. On March 24, 2009, State Council executive meeting examined and adopted the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of Modern Service Industry and Advanced Manufacturing of Shanghai to Construct International Financial Center and Shipping Center", which speeded up the developing pace of Shanghai as an international shipping center. The functioning status and influence of Shanghai international shipping center gradually appear. The cargo throughput of Shanghai Port has been coming out top since 2005, and the world's top 20 container shipping lines have all been settled in Shanghai. There had already been 8367 shipping enterprises with over 850, 000 workers gathering in Shanghai. Even in the context of the downturn in international shipping market and the recession of world economy, the cargo throughput of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Bonded Logistics Park from January to October 2011 reached 121, 326, 000 tons with a growth rate of 8.7%, and the container throughput reached 13, 070, 000 TEU with a growth rate of 5.6%. The cargo throughput and container throughput of Yangshan Port reached 97, 320, 000 tons with a 31.9% growth rate and 10, 942, 000 TEU with a 32.2% growth rate respectively. The statistics mentioned above indicate the upturn of the capability as well as the performance of Shanghai's international shipping and logistics, which contributes to the construction of the hard facility environment and environment of Shanghai international shipping center as well as the basic establishment of Shanghai's status as an international shipping center.

 However, in the light of the current developing condition of Shanghai international shipping center, it is still far away from the objective of constructing an international shipping service center with a high degree of concentration of shipping resources, a full-functional shipping service, a sound market environment for shipping, efficient service of modern logistics and great ability of global shipping resources allocation. Its capabilities in function gathering, resource allocation and logistics service still cannot meet the requirements of supporting China and influencing other international shipping center. For that, Shanghai should pay more attention to the development of high-end shipping service industry, which is the general trend as well as the key to the construction of international shipping center.

II. The current condition of talents of Shanghai shipping service and talent quantity prediction

 The current talents of Shanghai international shipping center, especially the extreme scarcity of high end talents of modern shipping service, cannot meet the requirements of the construction of Shanghai international shipping center.In accordance with the survey run by world famous shipping and transportation advisory body FISHER, the quantity of Shanghai's high end talents in shipping service industry ranks at eight behind London, Norway, Hong Kong, Singapore, Piraeus, New York and Frankfurt, being only 1/3 of that of London. More prominently, the current knowledge structure, professional skill and comprehensive quality of Shanghai's shipping talents are far from qualified for the tough international competition and wide global cooperation.

 In addition, such lackness of talents in shipping also exists in all levels of governments of Shanghai and related government departments other than shipping companies and shipping service firms. The detail education background of related levels of governments and departments can be seen in Pic.2. The lackness of shipping knowledge on the decision-making level may be a stumbling block in the construction of Shanghai international shipping center.

  As predicted by shipping experts, in the business of high-end shipping service, the quantity of Shanghai's shipping insurance brokers would be 1700 if GDP per head can live up to that of Hong Kong in 2008; in terms of maritime law and maritime arbitration, 1690 talents would be needed by Shanghai supposing it has a half of London's market share; in the fields of ship finance, Shanghai will be in need of 736, 000 ship finance talents out of 640 million of Shanghai's total amount of human resources in the light of the proportion of the financial industry practitioners in London and New York; in shipping economics, including international ship trading and leasing business, namely, shipping brokers, given that Shanghai's ship brokerage business accounts for 5% of global market share, while London accounts for 50%, then 420 to 530 ship brokers will be needed. In addition, 2000 to 1500 talents in shipping information, consultation, research and education concerning authorized shipping consulting agencies, shipping information base, shipping publications and shipping index in support of the construction of international shipping center will be in need if Shanghai has a half of London's market share.

 In summary, the shortage of high end talents in modern shipping and logistics has become a stumbling black in the development if Shanghai international shipping center. Hence, the construction of Shanghai Advanced Institute of International Shipping is bound to enormously favor the cultivation of high-end shipping talents and the formation of education base for the sustainable development of talent training, which contribute to the functioning of Shanghai as an international shipping center.

Pic2: Educational background of senior management of the governing bodies