At the Legislative Council meeting on 13 May, I moved my maiden Member’s Motion and discussed with fellow colleagues the proposal of Comprehensively Enhancing the Competitiveness of Hong Kong as an International Maritime Centre. The 15th Five-Year Plan explicitly underpins Hong Kong’s efforts to consolidate and upgrade its position as an international maritime center, and puts forward the initiative to "deepen Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao cooperation, continuously strive for breakthroughs in key areas of collaboration, and advance the coordinated development of ports, airports and rail transit". Hong Kong must fully implement its inaugural five-year plan to turn national strategies into tangible initiatives.

In recent years, the restructuring of global supply chains and escalating geopolitical risks have led to cargo diversion and surging operating costs. Faced with these structural challenges, systematic and forward-looking strategic planning is imperative. The future competitiveness of Hong Kong as a maritime hub hinges on its capacity to integrate regional coordination, green shipping, maritime and port technology and high-end professional services.

Strengthen intra-regional port coordination

In the past two years, Hong Kong’s port container throughput has fallen to around 13 million TEUs, while the throughput of Shenzhen Port and Guangzhou Port has repeatedly hit new highs. Under the framework of the 15th Five-Year Plan and resource sharing within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area), I propose that the HKSAR Government actively collaborate with Guangdong Provincial Government, Shenzhen and Guangzhou authorities to allocate shipping routes and cargo volumes under a combined port model. It should guide Nansha Port and Shenzhen Port to divert part of their international transshipment and high-value cargo to Kwai Tsing Container Terminals. The ultimate goal is to raise Hong Kong’s terminal throughput to 15 million TEUs or above.

We need to strengthen port coordination across the Greater Bay Area to foster functional complementarity and clear division of labor among regional ports. Shenzhen Port can focus on handling high-tech product exports, Guangzhou Port can deepen multimodal inland river transport, and Hong Kong can specialize in international transshipment, high-value cargo and maritime services, turning regional competition into collective competitive advantages.

Promote maritime and port technology

The new round of competition in the maritime industry is not merely a race in port operational efficiency, but also a contest in data processing capability. Take COSCO SHIPPING, an enterprise I am familiar with, as an example. Two years ago, it transformed itself from a traditional shipping firm into a maritime technology enterprise. Leveraging data covering 80,000 global merchant vessels, over 8 million historical shipping routes, more than 40 million vessel behavioral records and information on nearly 30,000 berths at over 5,000 ports worldwide, it adopts big data to help shipping companies plan the most cost-effective and time-efficient routes. This example fully illustrates that intelligentization is undoubtedly the core driver of competitiveness for the future maritime industry.

The HKSAR Government may also consider providing direct upgrade subsidies to terminal operators for automation and intelligentization retrofits, such as automated quay cranes and driverless terminal tractors. On the other hand, the Government should vigorously support R&D collaboration between the maritime industry and local tertiary institutions, set up a Maritime Technology R&D Fund, and drive order-oriented industry-university-research cooperation between universities and port operators.

Optimize the application of green fuels

Hong Kong has successfully completed its first bunkering trial of liquefied natural gas and methanol green fuels, proving it possesses the relevant conditions and capabilities. In fact, many Mainland cities have made remarkable progress in green and low-carbon transition. For instance, Shanghai has rolled out a roadmap to develop itself into an international green fuel bunkering and trading center for maritime transport, offering valuable reference for Hong Kong.

Electric commercial vessels also boast huge development potential. For example, the “Sugang Dianhang 01” is equipped with three mobile power batteries with a total capacity of nearly 6,000 kWh, achieving zero emissions during navigation and berthing. It also supports rapid battery replacement, effectively addressing the shortage of inland river charging facilities. I suggest the HKSAR Government launch a pilot scheme for electric commercial vessels in Victoria Harbour under the upcoming five-year plan to actively advance the development of green shipping.

Develop high-value-added maritime insurance

In terms of maritime insurance, factors including trade frictions and the volatile situation in the Red Sea have left Hong Kong in a passive market position. The HKSAR Government should proactively support maritime insurance institutions in expanding their global service networks. Particularly in the reinsurance sector, Hong Kong is fully capable of establishing an independent risk underwriting mechanism, instead of relying long-term on underwriting networks of other regions. Meanwhile, the Government should facilitate maritime financing and settlement, strongly support RMB settlement for shipbuilding and ocean freight charges, accelerate the development of ship financial leasing, and enhance the convenience of cross-border capital receipts and payments. This will further integrate maritime services with national financial strategies.

The global maritime industry is at a critical juncture with both challenges and opportunities. By capitalizing on Hong Kong’s unique edge of being rooted in the motherland and connected to the world, and with national support plus leadership from the HKSAR Government, Hong Kong as an international maritime center will surely forge ahead against all odds and scale new heights of glory.

This is a free translation. For the exact meaning of the article, please refer to the Chinese version.