(Yicai Global) Jan. 15 -- Guangzhou Port, the seventh largest haven globally in terms of container traffic, will receive investment of CNY100 billion (USD15.5 billion) over the next three years to boost capacity in response to higher demand, local newspaper Guangzhou Daily reported today.

The port, southern China's largest integrated container and bulk-goods hub, will see annual container throughput increase from 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) to 25 million TEU by 2020, and bulk shipment capacity will rise from 590 million tons to 650 million tons.

International liner routes stopping at the port will rise from 91 last year to 120 within three years, said Huang Bo, deputy director of Guangzhou Port Group.

Infrastructure construction related to the integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will support the port's expansion and establish a comprehensive intermodal network of highways, railways and waterways, said Yuan Yue, another deputy director at the authority.

The concept of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, first proposed in 2009, will bring together nine cities in Guangdong Province and the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao. Premier Li Keqiang included the project's construction in a government work report for the first-time last year, with the aims of developing a major bay area, comparable with the New York and San Francisco Bay areas the US, and that of Tokyo in Japan.