August 12, 2025 — The four-day (8/10-13) 111th annual conference of the Association of Pacific Ports (APP) in the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia, Canada was the venue Port of Kaohsiung, TIPC and Nanaimo Port Authority chose to formally announce their new sister port relationship. This bilateral framework establishes a firm foundation for future cooperation in business development, port safety management, information / communication technology (ICT), and other areas.
The ceremony held on August 11th was overseen by Deputy Minister of Transport Canada, Arun Thangaraj, Nanaimo Mayor, Leonard Krog and TECO Director General Angel Liu and officiated by TIPC President Chin-jung Wang and Nanaimo Port Authority President and CEO Ian Marr, with Port of Kaohsiung Harbor Master Tsu-chiang Chen and Nanaimo Port Authority Board Chair Donna Hais signing the official sister-port documentation. The signing ceremony was held during the conference, with all APP attendees adding to the celebratory atmosphere.
Port of Nanaimo is an APP member is located in British Columbia, Canada within the second largest city on Vancouver Island. The port is surrounded by natural beauty and rugged coastal scenery and steeped in history. Founded in 1961, the port is centered around a natural deep-water harbor with terminal facilities including the Nanaimo Assembly Wharf, Duke Point Terminal, a dedicated commercial waterway, portside retail area, and fishing wharf. Major business areas include both containerized and bulk cargo handling and ferry and cruise services. Port of Nanaimo is a major transportation hub between Vancouver Island and mainland North America and an important goods distribution center for the region.
To ease the increasing congestion faced at Vancouver, Canada’s largest commercial port, Nanaimo Port is expanding its infrastructure with Canadian federal government support to provide backup / buffer support services, making Nanaimo a key target of Canadian shipping infrastructure expansion. Vancouver established sister port relations with Port of Kaohsiung in 1993 and, this year, Port of Kaohsiung welcomes Port of Nanaimo as its 20th sister port. Beyond facilitating stronger cooperation between the two ports, the relationship is set to deepen ties and exchanges between the ports’ respective cities.
The annual APP conference brings ports from around the globe together to strengthen mutual understanding and promote regular exchange. The theme of this year’s conference, “One Ocean – Shared Vision”, covers topics including inter-port relations, port-related technologies, and port-partner relationships. The 150 attendees from 16 port organizations, in addition to TIPC, are from Canada, the United States, Philippines and the Marshall Islands. At last year’s conference (2024), held from August 11th to 14th in Taiwan, TIPC was honored to establish formal sister port relations with the ports of Long Beach (USA) and Majuro (Marshall Islands). The new sister port relationship with Nanaimo, achieved through the concerted efforts of both TIPC and the Taiwan government, further raises the scope and depth of Taiwan ports’ interactions and exchanges with key commercial ports around the world and ensures the operations and vision of Taiwan’s international commercial ports continue to align closely with global shipping industry expectations and needs.
