Editorial | Hong Kong can ride waves to once again become top maritime centre
- Series of government proposals, including developing city as green shipping hub, aims to restore leading international position
Hong Kong’s prosperity is rooted in its maritime history. Gifted with a sheltered deep-sea harbour and strategic location on the Far East trade routes, it evolved into a world port city late last century with a container throughput unrivalled by others.
However, regional counterparts gradually caught up amid a shifting trading landscape and intensifying competition.
The 14th five-year plan and the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area fully recognise, among other things, the city’s role as a seafaring centre and seek to strengthen its high-value-added maritime and logistics services and status as a transshipment hub. The goals were also reiterated by President Xi Jinping to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu during his recent duty visit to Beijing.
The plan announced by the Transport and Logistics Bureau is a positive step on this front. It lays out 10 strategies and 32 actions to lift Hong Kong’s status as an international maritime centre, including developing the city as a green shipping hub with zero carbon emissions, smoothing the way to smart port development and maritime digitalisation.
It also aims to enhance the city’s seafaring influence through Greater Bay Area and international cooperation, as well as the exploration of further tax concessions to attract international maritime enterprises.