THE global port community should use information from various studies and reports produced worldwide, including participation in international debate to their best advantage, says Port Development Board secretary Tony Clark.
He said United Nations Conference on Trade and Development had recently produced a report on challenges facing Asian ports to the end of this decade while the International Association of Ports and Harbours was seeking to assess global cargo movements.
In addition, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific secretary had developed a series of software packages designed to assist policy makers, planners and operators of maritime and port facilities in the evaluation of development proposals, he added.
''We, in Hongkong, will certainly do that, for Hongkong is now, and will be for the future, China's principal seaway to the world,'' Mr Clark said in a talk entitled The Port of Hongkong - Planning for the Next Century at a recent conference.
Hongkong's economic development already inextricably merged with that of southern China and therefore needed an efficient port to maintain the economic momentum of both territories, he commented.
Mr Clark said Hongkong would continue to expand and provide efficient cost-effective port facilities well into the next century.
