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Following is the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the Inaugural Sail Ceremony of COSCO HONG KONG today (April 26).
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to join you all at the inaugural sail ceremony of COSCO HONG KONG and to meet so many old friends from my days in shipping.
As a veteran in shipping, especially in liner shipping service, the COSCO Group has made tremendous contributions to foster our country's foreign trade. Today, COSCO has named the new member of its fleet as "Hong Kong" and chosen our city for the inaugural sail. That reflects its strong support to Hong Kong's shipping industry. On behalf of the HKSAR Government and our shipping sector, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to the COSCO Group.
Hong Kong, an internationally reputable maritime centre, relies on shipping industry as a pillar to spur economic growth and create job opportunities. Our position as a leading international maritime centre is established through two kinds of services, namely, the container port and the international maritime services.
In container port service, Hong Kong has remained the world's busiest container port for years. We owe much of our success to the speedy, reliable and efficient service of the industry, fast-growing economic growth in the Mainland and our strategic location at the hub of the Pearl River Delta area, the largest manufacturing base in the world. Hong Kong serves as the country's premier port for foreign trade, handling 70% of the container cargo in southern China last year. This is indeed a hard-earned achievement. We are fully aware of the new competition and challenges ahead. We commit to maintaining our advantages in container port service, improving efficiency and reducing cost to raise competitiveness. The commissioning of the Container Terminal 9 in mid-2003 will significantly augment the capacity of our container port. With the great support of the Central Government, we will strengthen coordination with the Pearl River Delta area in infrastructure planning, including new container port facilities. We must provide swift customs clearance with the Pearl River Delta area to make our container port competitive. We will work hard to ease cross-boundary congestion. All in all, we will try every means to help the freight forwarding industry reduce their transportation cost. We will also push forward with the development of the logistics industry, capitalising on our advantages in container port and aviation facilities, to provide more competitive services for the Mainland's import and export trade, and to open up a new domain for our economic development.
In international maritime service, quite a number of internationally well-known shipowners have registered their ships with Hong Kong, who are currently holding, controlling or managing 37 million tonnes, 7% of the world's total tonnage, a volume comparable to the shipping centres of Greece, Norway and London. We also provide quality shipping register service. Since 1997, the total tonnage of our shipping register has increased by 250%, from 5.6 million to 14 million tonnes, epitomising the international sector's rising confidence in our quality shipping register. Hong Kong is the focal point of shipping-related services in the region, providing financing, insurance, legal, arbitration, management and agent services for the industry. Fuelled by the accelerated development in the country's economy and trade, the demand for container transport, crude oil, energy, ore and raw materials will rise quickly, creating great opportunities for the international shipping market. The HKSAR strives to enhance cooperation with the international and the Mainland shipping industry to fully realise our advantages as a leading maritime centre, so as to contribute to the development of the country and add new momentum to our economy. We will strengthen communication with the industry to seek their views and work with them to scale new heights.
Since our return to the motherland, the COSCO Group has played an active role as a participant and investor in our port, shipping and logistics development. At present, apart from running its subsidiary here as the COSCO Hong Kong Shipping Co. Ltd., each week COSCO has eleven main line containership calls to Hong Kong which transport about 1 million TEUs every year. Fifty-seven (presently fifty-eight) COSCO ships are registered in Hong Kong. I take this opportunity to thank on behalf of the HKSAR Government the COSCO Group once and again for its support to Hong Kong.
Lastly, I wish COSCO HONG KONG a bon voyage and the COSCO Group a prosperous year. May the shipping industry in Hong Kong sail far and large.
End/Friday, April 26, 2002
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