A ceremony to celebrate the founding of Guangzhou Public Transportation Group, the largest public transportation group in South China, was held in Guangzhou on Dec 30.

The new company, with total assets reaching 15.3 billion yuan ($2.35 billion), is the result of a merger by 12 state-owned enterprises covering areas of public transportation, taxis, ferries and transportation cards. It now owns more than 14,900 buses, 9,000 taxis and 43 ferries.

A special ceremony in celebration of Guangzhou Public Transportation Group is held on Dec 30. [Photo/cnr.cn] 

Chen Wanxiong, chairman of the board and Party chief of Guangzhou Public Transportation Group and government officials from the communications commission of Guangzhou municipality and state-owned assets supervision and administration commission of Guangzhou municipal government attended the ceremony.

The founding of Guangzhou Public Transportation Group will help integrate public transportation resources, improve passenger services and explore more pilot projects such as cold chain logistics and pharmaceutical logistics, according to Chen.

Chen Wanxiong, chairman of the board and Party chief of Guangzhou Public Transportation Group, delivers a speech at the ceremony. [Photo/cnr.cn] 

The ceremony also saw the signing of cooperation agreements between Guangzhou Public Transportation Group and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, GAC Group and Guangzhou Metro. A special innovation research institute was also founded by Guangzhou Public Transportation Group, internet giant Tencent, China Mobile Guangzhou Branch and the Institute of Software Application Technology, Guangzhou & Chinese Academy of Sciences.