'Nonetheless, we must also appreciate that the open storage and port back-up operations in the New Territories are providing support for the logistics industry and port operation in Hong Kong.'
Raymond W. M. Wong
Deputy director, Planning Department
Letters to the Editor, March 27
Let's put some perspective on the logistics industry and port operation in Hong Kong.
Logistics is a military term for getting ammunition and food to soldiers. We have adopted it for the warehouse and delivery business because the word has a fine, sophisticated ring. The lout who will not shut off his engine down in the car park is not a truck driver. He is a transport systems logistics technician. Get it straight.
As to port operation, it's on its way out in this town. The most we can really do for it is wave it a long goodbye as it slowly declines.
Don't believe me? Look at the first chart. It shows how decisively Guangdong has gone past Hong Kong in container movements.
This should not be surprising. Why go to the trouble of shipping goods by driving an extra distance through a busy city after crossing a border, with its inevitable grasping hands and slowdowns, when you can ship those goods out much closer to home?
