Following is the speech by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, at the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) Annual Convention 2025 today (November 19):
 
Constantinos (Chair of the IBIA and Bunker Director at the Star Bulk Carriers, Mr Constantinos Capetanakis), Alexander (Executive Director of the IBIA, Mr Alexander Prokopakis), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and many friends, old and new,
 
     Welcome again to Hong Kong. Today is getting a little bit cold and I know that every one of you has made an effort to arrive here to make it for this forum. I can assure you that with the Chair's remarks, you would have a lot of takeaways from this forum this morning. It is actually a distinct honour for Hong Kong to host the IBIA's premier flagship event here for the very first time. Judging from what Constantinos just said, I think Hong Kong and the IBIA share a lot of the same vision. I truly agree with the particular phrase you mentioned that we need leadership and we need action and solutions, rather than just rules or discussions inside closed doors, we need to go to the ground. We also need to lead everybody for a joint solution towards the green transformation.
 
     The IBIA's decision to host this event in Hong Kong is absolutely spot on. As you all know, we're renowned for our highly efficient, professional and smart port services, consistently ranking us among the world's top international maritime centres. This is complemented by our thriving bunkering activities, which put us seventh in the world, second in our country and first in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. We haven't said so in the past, but as we move on from conventional fuel to greener fuel for shipping vessels, we dig out our figures and records. It seems that it is not just that we have been doing good and ranking high in terms of cargo throughput, but we have also been making use of our pivotal position to provide fuel for ocean-going vessels over the decades. Therefore, it seems more than suitable to discuss the latest developments in bunkering in the busiest bunkering hub and the most happening port in the region. So I can assure you, Alexander, you have chosen the right place to host this forum since your visit last year.

     Our strength in bunkering is no coincidence: Hong Kong is strategically located at the southernmost tip of southern China right next to international fairways, making it a perfect place for ships to refuel. And now, as the entire marine community is pivoting to decarbonisation, a great opportunity lies right ahead of us. By leveraging this strategic position, Hong Kong is poised to develop into a leading centre for green maritime fuel bunkering as well as trading - ensuring we continue to meet the industry's evolving needs for top-notch, sustainable bunkering services. In fact, to support the International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s vision of achieving net-zero carbon emissions from international shipping by or around 2050, the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) Government took action quickly, and we are determined to do so, notwithstanding the hiccups recently on the schedule of the IMO. Exactly one year ago, we laid out a clear pathway and roadmap for our port in the Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering promulgated.    
 
     The thinking behind our Action Plan is very simple: we need to offer the industry a clear direction on green maritime fuel adoption, supported by policies that can turn our shared vision for a green maritime fuel bunkering and trading centre into reality. That's why we've set out in the Action Plan five main strategies - Green Fuel, Green Port, Green Incentives, Green Collaboration and Green Talents. We have 10 specific measures underpinning these five strategies.

     Starting with Green Fuels, we make clear that Hong Kong will adopt a multi-fuel strategy, with the most commonly used or explored fuels such as LNG (liqified natural gas), biodiesel, methanol, ammonia and hydrogen being the fuels of choice. We then set out to build up a supply chain of such fuels in Hong Kong, from locating sources of green fuels in the proximity, that is the Chinese Mainland, which is conveniently right next to us and have been the largest supplier of such fuels by far, to developing storage facilities and providing bunkering infrastructure in Hong Kong. We are small, but I think we will be targeted and focused in providing, putting and rolling out storage facilities, infrastructure support, so as to allow Hong Kong to provide a miniature of the ecosystem that is advocated under the IBIA. Crucially, this strategy is already backed by concrete regulatory actions. Just to name a few, we have passed the enabling legislation, published technical requirements and guidelines, and approved a duty exemption for methanol bunkering. In the old days, there used to be some industry using the methanol for making wine. And that is not good for health. That is why we have updated legislation on charging duty on methanol. It might have just looked like a simple piece of legislation; we went around the government administration, particularly the health authorities, the doctors and the medical practitioners. While we respect their professionalism, it took us some time to convince them that we are now looking for bunkering only, for our outward-looking ships and not winemaking. While we have already amended our law, we promised that we will input, inject some of the tightened safeguarding measures, from the customs point of view, to make sure that there will be no abuse of this tax exemption. But this is a right signal that we have expedited, and we hope to see the first-ever methanol bunkering operation soon in Hong Kong.

     These are the precise policy measures, and legislative and supporting measures that we promised. We are designed to make green maritime fuel bunkering a practical and competitive reality. One year on, we have indeed come a long way, with commercial LNG and biodiesel bunkering services now available in Hong Kong and nearly 200 000 tonnes of green maritime fuels bunkered to date in Hong Kong. Still a lot of our industry players are not aware that Hong Kong has been treated to that point. They think that we are still at the initiation stage, still at the drafting stage. But I need to publicise more and talk more that we are actually actionable. We put things into operation, and it's not just for pilots, but it was for commercial operation. The first methanol bunkering operation, as I just mentioned, will also happen before long, while we will start looking into ammonia and hydrogen bunkering and hope to tell the market where we stand on it soon.
 
     We fully recognise that the maritime industry is global by nature. I also mentioned and discussed at the ICS (International Chamber of Shipping) summit, we do not treat Hong Kong-based shipping companies as local companies. We treat them all along as global companies. We are globally based. We need to take their concerns and anxieties, arising from all the geopolitical circumstances, dear to our hearts. We have to listen, facilitate and help them to resolve and to take solutions. A truly green transition can't happen in isolation; it demands collaboration between ports available worldwide. First, we have been supporting our port operators in their effort to reduce carbon emissions and create a greener port. But just as importantly, we are looking outward, we are actively identifying ports with which to establish green shipping corridors. I would like to learn more from the IBIA, because from your base worldwide, I already know that there are a few existing green shipping corridors in operation, and there are a few being planned. I very much hope that Hong Kong will be able to participate in some of those, if not all. If Hong Kong can lead discussions on creating a new ones, perhaps in this part of the region, we can actively participate and contribute. For the very first step, we have also announced the signing of the first batch of partner ports. This paved our way to put Hong Kong in a more high-profile position, so that we can attract more sisters and brothers to build a greater alliance. This initiative will definitely drive us to upgrade our infrastructure and enhance green maritime fuel bunkering capabilities, with the ultimate goal of creating truly net-zero emission shipping lanes. We will have some exciting updates on this front next year, particularly on our move towards creating or joining the green shipping corridors. It is not just an upward or a high profile publicising move, but actually I would like to use this to drive inward, back home. The effort towards building a green port is very important to push our ship operators or container terminal operators to invest and expedite their action. The IBIA Secretariat will know that there needs to be a lot of participation and influence, especially on the operators because they have to really invest billions and trillions of money. They will need to know the long-term future and long-term bright spot on that. But in the meantime, they will definitely need to make some tough decisions right in the short term for investments. With Hong Kong putting our footprint on the worldwide green transformation path, I would like to use this as a triggering point to enable our operators and industry players to join, participate and act.
 
     Closer to home, we are forging partnerships with stakeholders from both Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. I think one of the points that the IBIA comes to Hong Kong is that you would like to run Hong Kong as a platform and you can get more knowledge about what is happening in the Chinese Mainland. In particular, we have set up some platforms and communication channels to focus squarely on fuel supply and trading with the Chinese Mainland. A powerful example of this collaboration was this June, when we signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with four green maritime fuel suppliers and bunker operators. This took place at a groundbreaking event - the first ever Mainland-Hong Kong green energy business matchmaking event organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce of the Central People's Government. It is actually motivated and rooted between the Ministry of Commerce and my bureau. We hosted that matchmaking event in a dual mode. It was hosted both in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. We witnessed the signing of the MOU online and in parallel mode, thanks to all the digital technological backup. With over 300 industry representatives participating, the event was a clear sign of our shared commitment to building a thriving ecosystem for maritime fuel bunkering and trading. But we didn't stop there, we established a communication platform that encompasses companies registered and doing business in Hong Kong from across the entire maritime fuel bunkering supply chain, with a view to facilitating business discussion and collecting views from the trade on ways to bolster our competitiveness in green maritime fuel bunkering and trading. We warmly welcome all interested Hong Kong companies to join the communication platform. For all those from abroad, we welcome you to have branches or headquarters in Hong Kong, and we also welcome them to join this communication platform which we will be announcing soon, so stay tuned. Together, we can firmly put Hong Kong on the map as a premier green maritime fuel bunkering hub in the region, as well as a green maritime fuel trading centre that acts as the gateway for export and trading of Mainland-produced green maritime fuels.

     Ladies and gentlemen, the transition towards green maritime fuels is an irreversible trend for the maritime industry and this is what we have mentioned. This isn't a choice or an option; it's an imperative. And Hong Kong is all in. To navigate this change, we need forums like this. The IBIA has the right decision to have this spot right in this year's Hong Kong Maritime Week. I am sure you have helped drive some of our 18 000-plus participants this year, which is a record high. Today is about preparing for that future. The conversations in this room will equip us with the crucial steps we need very much to take, together and ahead. My thank to the IBIA for bringing us all together today, I encourage all participants this morning to make best of this event, learn more about the opportunities here in Hong Kong and also worldwide in different countries, different ports. We are all very passionate, notwithstanding the International Maritime Organization's agenda, and we hope that we can explore how we, together, can be a part of that exciting green journey.

     I wish you all a very fruitful event and a pleasant stay in Hong Kong. Thank you very much.

Ends/Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Issued at HKT 13:21

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