Policy Address
Enhancing Hong Kong’s Status as an International Transportation Centre
43. To enhance Hong Kong’s status as an international transportation centre, our port has to maintain its strengths of high efficiency, good connectivity and wide coverage. We will also need to promote wider application of digital technology in business processes and operations by the maritime and port industry for the development of a “Smart Port”. We will explore, in collaboration with the industry, concrete initiatives to drive the development of a “Smart Port”. On logistics, we have to further facilitate the flow of logistics information in the GBA and improvements to intermodal operation. We also need to develop high value-added logistics and encourage the logistics industry to make wider use of technology to enhance productivity.
44. Another major development direction is high value-added maritime business services, including ship registration, ship finance and management, marine insurance, and maritime legal and arbitration services. Tax concessions will be introduced to attract members of the maritime industry to establish a business presence in Hong Kong. The HKSAR Government will also expand the overseas service network of the Hong Kong Shipping Registry of the Marine Department. In addition to desk services in London, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney, new desks will be set up in San Francisco, Tokyo and Toronto to provide better support for Hong Kong registered ships.
45. In terms of cross-boundary land transport, three major cross-boundary infrastructure projects, namely the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) and the Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, were completed one after another in the past few years, thereby helping Hong Kong integrate into the “one-hour living circle” in the GBA and enhancing connectivity of infrastructure in the GBA. The governments of Hong Kong and Shenzhen have established the “Task Force for Hong Kong-Shenzhen Co-operation on Cross-Boundary Railway Infrastructure” to jointly develop the “GBA on the Rail”. Besides, the governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong are pressing ahead with the “Quota-free Scheme for Hong Kong Private Cars Travelling to Guangdong via the HZMB”. After the epidemic situation is brought under control and the removal of quarantine requirements for cross-boundary travel is gradually implemented, the Scheme will allow eligible Hong Kong private cars to travel between Hong Kong and Guangdong via the HZMB without the need to obtain a regular quota in advance. The governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong have also agreed to extend the Scheme to cover another land boundary control point in due course.
