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"Hong Kong, with our unique location, with our
common culture, with expertise in the maritime industry, will
be unrivalled in trying to take advantage of the growth of requirement
in the maritime sector of the mainland of China," Mr Tung said.
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Mr
Tung's appeal to shipowners to flag their ships in Hong
Kong was echoed by the Director of Marine, Mr Tsui Shung-yiu,
who pointed out that there were still a large number of
ships owned or controlled by local shipowners flying non-Hong
Kong flags.
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"They are of course free to do so as there are
no constraints, whether legal, political or otherwise, on the
owners of the choice of flag," Mr Tsui said.
"But the result is that Hong Kong shipowners and
their ships suffer a lack of identity, " he said. He therefore
urged local shipowners to consider seriously bringing their ships
back to Hong Kong. He gave assurance to the shipping community
that the Government was committed to providing the most efficient
and customer-oriented service to shipowners.
Stressing that the HKSR was a popular, efficient,
high-quality, well-structured and user-friendly register, Mr Tsui
said the services provided were responsive to the industry's
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needs.
"Realising the keenly competitive climate in shipping,
the Marine Department has been working closely with the industry
and will carry on devising favourable conditions for the shipping
community to compete against our competitors overseas," he added.
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To
strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of the
HKSR, the Government introduced a number of new measures
in April 1999. These measures included the reduction of
registration fees, simplifying of registration procedures,
streamlining of ship survey requirements, and the introduction
of a Flag State Quality Control System. All these measures
yielded a tremendous growth in the HKSR tonnage by over
60 per cent to the 10 million mark in less than two years.
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On the celebration day, the HKSR had reached 10.71
million GRT, with a total fleet of 581 ships.
Other distinguished guests joining the celebration
were the Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Sandra Lee; PMB's
Chairman, Sir Gordon Wu; the Hong Kong Shipowners Association's
Chairman, Mr Andrew Chen; and the Executive Director-General of
Maritime Safety Administration, Ministry of Communications, Captain
Liu
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Gongchen.
On the same day, the Secretary of PMB, Mr Alex
Fong, attended the naming ceremony of "Utah" in Korea - a 300,000
DWT tanker of the World-Wide Shipping Agency Ltd of Hong Kong
which will be flying the HK flag.
The Chairman of World-Wide, Dr Helmut Sohmen, said
he was happy to lend full support to the HKSR by adding more of
his ships to it. He also praised the HKSR as well-administered
and well-respected.
The vessel "Utah" is the first of the two large
World-Wide tankers to come onto the HKSR within this year.
"We are very pleased that World-Wide Shipping Agency
Ltd of Hong Kong has decided to fly the HK flag on their two latest
state-of-the-art tankers," Mr Fong said.
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