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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, delivered at the 2012 Annual Ball jointly organised by the Hong Kong Joint Branch of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) and the Hong Kong Institute of Marine Technology today (November 16):
Mr Cheng (Yeung-ming), Mr Tang (Kwong-fai), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening.
It is my great pleasure to be here with you tonight, at this important and traditional event of the Hong Kong Joint Branch of the RINA and IMarEST together with the Hong Kong Institute of Marine Technology.
Hong Kong was founded by the British in the 19th Century as a trading port between East and West, during the then booming China trade. Today, the importance of international shipping to the global economy and to Hong Kong's development need not be rehearsed here. Container port operations in Hong Kong have matured over the last 40 years since the first three terminals in Kwai Tsing were commissioned in 1972-73. Many shore-side operations are now mechanised and computerised. During the same period, marine technology and sciences, like other streams of the sciences, have also progressed tremendously. Nowadays, vessels of very advanced technology and design are built to suit different needs.
In tandem with the developments in marine technology and engineering, which your institutions have been instrumental in promoting, the scale of port operations is also fast changing. The emergence of the new generation of ultra-large container ships takes port operations to another level. To enable the Hong Kong port to handle this new generation of container ships at all tides, we are taking forward a project to dredge, by 2016, the Kwai Tsing Container Basin and its approach channel from the present navigable depth of 15 metres to 17 metres. To maintain Hong Kongˇ¦s competitiveness as a hub port, we are committed to providing supportive infrastructural facilities like this in a timely manner.
Alongside the hardware development, we are mindful of the need to enhance and upgrade the software as well - by which I mean our institutional strengths, management systems and human resources. Our free port, simple tax regime, sound legal and judicial systems, and the free flow of information and capital are our longstanding invaluable assets fundamental to the development of a cluster of maritime services in Hong Kong ˇV ranging from ship owning, ship management, ship chartering and broking, ship finance, maritime insurance, law and arbitration, to classification societies, as well as our Shipping Register in which we take great pride. The Register, now ranking fourth in the world, records a gross tonnage of over 78 million, doubled that five years ago.
It is not enough for us to maintain the status quo. We face growing competition from other international ports, and we have to grasp new opportunities opened up by the rapid economic growth in the Mainland as well as the global shift of economical activities to Asia. As always, we strive to do better.
Looking ahead, we see both opportunities and challenges: the growing consumer markets in Asia and the Mainland will continue to generate demands for shipping and maritime services. There is also unequivocal support by the Central Peopleˇ¦s Government as expressed in the National "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" for Hong Kong to consolidate and enhance its position as an international shipping centre.
The key question is how we should be going to take advantage of these opportunities. Different experts may have different answers, but to me one thing is certain: human resources are crucial to Hong Kongˇ¦s continued success, and the provision of knowledge-based maritime services will be the key to our future development.
Hong Kong needs marine professionals to grow in numbers and excel in quality. We have been devoting much effort to attracting young people to join the industry as shore-based talents. For example, we have rolled out the Hong Kong Maritime Scholarship Scheme as well as the Academic Collaboration Scheme between the Dalian Maritime University and the University of Hong Kong to provide scholarships to local, Mainland and overseas students for master's-level maritime studies in Hong Kong.
IMarEST and RINA are internationally renowned professional institutions bringing together marine engineers, scientists and technologists, and their members are involved at all levels in the design, construction and operations of marine vessels and structures. The Hong Kong Joint Branch has been representing IMarEST and RINA in Hong Kong for over 30 years, with 300 members engaging in different sectors of the maritime industry. With your participation in promoting the Sea-going Training Incentive Scheme in recent years, your career talks help to attract youngsters to join the sea-going career.
Since the introduction of the Scheme in 2004, we have enrolled more than 200 cadets. Some of them have obtained the Master Mariner or Chief Engineer Certificates. I hope that, with our concerted effort, we can soon see a strong team of local marine professionals joining our shipping industry.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have passed the stage where labour-intensive services were central to the maritime industry. In the new millennium, knowledge is the key to supporting high-value-added maritime services, which are in turn crucial to any international maritime centre.
Your organisations supply some of the finest professional marine experts in the fields concerned. The Government looks forward to working closely with the professional bodies like yours to groom even more talents for Hong Kong's growing maritime industry, so that the Hong Kong port can go from great to greater.
In closing, may I wish you all good health and success, and a memorable evening.
Ends/Friday, November 16, 2012
Issued at HKT 21:29
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