A PMB delegation recently completed a fruitful visit programme to Europe to promote Hong Kong as the world's leading port and a major international maritime centre in the Asia-Pacific region.

Led by the Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Sandra Lee and PMB Chairman, Sir Gordon Wu, the delegation comprised representatives from the Government and the private sectors.

During their trip from May 14 to May 22, the delegation visited major ports and shipping centres in Europe to exchange views on the port and shipping developments. They also met with port authorities and shipping communities on the latest port and shipping developments in Hong Kong, assuring them that Hong Kong was a "can do port" as well as a "can do maritime centre".

At the seminars organised for the port and maritime communities, the delegation highlighted the edge offered by the port of Hong Kong - the quality service, reliability and flexibility, emphasizing the connectivity through integrated transportation and logistics network between Hong Kong and its cargo source in the Pearl River Delta region.

The Port and Maritime Board delegation, led by Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Sandra Lee, visited the Port of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

The Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Sandra Lee, told the port and shipping communities that with the expected escalation in trade and the liberalisation of the distribution and logistics sector, Hong Kong's service providers would be able to upgrade their supply chain management services to their clients.

"Hong Kong can surely offer the 'total logistics solution' for trade and transportation with China, especially the Pearl River Delta area which is Hong Kong's main cargo base," Ms Lee said.

"Hong Kong has been ranked the world's Number 1 container port for eight years since 1991 and continued to hold the title in 2000, handling a record throughput of 18.1 million TEUs. The recently updated Port Cargo Forecasts predict that Hong Kong's container throughput will grow to 30 million TEUs in 2010 and Hong Kong is conducting a Port Development Strategy Review to map out the strategy to prepare the port to meet its future challenge," she said.

The PMB chairman, Sir Gordon, highlighted the benefits Hong Kong would gain after China's accession to WTO.

"At present, 40 per cent of China's trade passes through Hong Kong. With China's imminent entry to WTO, Hong Kong's role as the gateway to Mainland China will provide more business opportunities for Hong Kong as it will bring more trade and investments to the Mainland China. Currently, about 100 out of the 400-plus foreign invested freight forwarders in the Mainland China are from Hong Kong," Sir Gordon said.

The Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Sandra Lee, met Mayor of Rotterdam, Mr Ivo Opstelten during the Port and Maritime Board delegation visit to Europe.

"Hong Kong is now working on a number of infrastructure projects to support the port activities. The fourth land border crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is being developed. "Furthermore, the Railway Development Strategy 2000 also includes the further examination of the implementation plan for the building of a port rail line from the Kwai Chung port to a rail consolidation/distribution centre at Pinghu in Shenzhen," Mr Fong added.

On maritime services, the delegation told the European shipping communities, including shipowners and major shipping companies that Hong Kong had highly concentrated clusters of maritime services providers, making it the ideal regional base for shipowning, ship management, ship finance, ship insurance and ship broking activities.

The delegation noted that Hong Kong based shipowners managed over 34 million tons, or over 6 per cent, of the world fleet and the gross registered tonnage on the Hong Kong Shipping Register had exceeded 11.3 million in March.

Hong Kong maintained its position as the world's busiest container port in 2000 with the total container throughput reaching 18.1 million TEUs, representing a growth of 11.7 per cent over 1999.

The Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Sandra Lee, revealed these figures at the opening ceremony of the Terminal Operations Conference (TOC) Asia 2001 in February. In fact, Hong Kong has been ranked as the world's busiest container port for eight years since 1991.

Apart from announcing Hong Kong's success in retaining the world title, Ms Lee also announced the initial findings of the updated Port Cargo Forecasts.

Ms Lee explained that in order to ensure the economic infrastructure and port facilities in Hong Kong met the needs of the industry, the PMB carried out major

reviews of the Port Cargo Forecasts (PCF) once every two to three years to ensure that these forecasts, which covered a span of 20 years ahead, were as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

"The recently completed Port Cargo Forecasts reveal that the cargo demand for the Hong Kong container port in the next 15 years will grow at an annual rate of 5 per cent, which is faster than the forecast of 4.6 per cent in our previous study in 1997," Ms Lee said.

"The cargo pie for the Pearl River Delta is expected to continue to grow at a high rate fuelled by an expected general increase in world trade and increase in foreign direct investment through China's accession to the WTO, leading to increased imports to and exports from China, especially for the Guangdong province. Hong Kong is expected to

benefit from the continuing growth in Southern China as the main source of cargo for Hong Kong comes from the Pearl River Delta," she said.

Ms Lee noted that although the development and expansion of the Northern Mainland ports and increasing competition from the Shenzhen ports would divert some of the cargoes that might otherwise flow through the port of Hong Kong, the PCF study concluded that cargo from Southern China would grow sufficiently fast to support the planned expansion of ports in the region, including Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

"The throughput of Hong Kong port is expected to grow from the base figure of 18 million TEUs to 30 million TEUs in 2010 and 40 million TEUs in 2020," Ms Lee added.