Letters | How Northern Metropolis plan could help Hong Kong step up as a logistics hub
- Readers discuss the potential of the Northern Metropolis plan, roundabouts in Sai Kung, and road safety for pedestrians
The administration should pay attention to the fact that most of the land in the New Territories is now undeveloped agricultural land and brownfield sites with low productivity. It also includes a large number of open container yards, car parks, open storage and recycling yards.
The volume of cross-border land freight has steadily declined in recent years, as has the use of many container yards. In the implementation of the Northern Metropolis, attention should be paid to the operators of these container yards and open storage yards with relocation policies put in place for them. Those policies should also tell the public how the revitalisation of abandoned agricultural land will be implemented.
Hong Kong is one of the biggest container ports in China. I suggest our government take advantage of Hong Kong’s free port status and make use of the vast area in the Northern Metropolis for container yards, open storage and other logistics operations.
These could leverage the use of new cloud-based container management technology to connect customers, customs and freight transport systems. The data of operators, drivers, container yards and shipping companies should be processed centrally to save manpower and time.
On the other hand, the pandemic has accelerated the use of online technology in the logistics industry. Logistics businesses no longer simply involve solutions for warehousing and transport but also cloud supply chain solutions.