Exclusive | Why CY Leung thinks Hong Kong needs to strengthen maritime-related sectors Hong Kong should develop its shipping insurance and management capabilities, among other areas, to strengthen its status as a global maritime hub amid intensifying geopolitical tensions, former city leader Leung Chun-ying has said. Leung, in his capacity as co-founder and honorary adviser to the Hong Kong Chamber of Shipping, said in a wide-ranging interview last week that the city should adopt big-picture thinking when it came to unpredictable global developments to minimise exposure to disruptions. “The long-term view is that Hong Kong should have its own capabilities when it comes to shipping management, shipping insurance and various other things concerning shipping in Hong Kong in the 15th five-year plan, both on the national level and also on local levels.” Leung said that while he was not part of the chamber’s recent delegation to Beijing and Europe, Hong Kong’s unique advantages as a common law jurisdiction and its bilingual capabilities had been well recognised by mainland China and Europe. Kenneth Lam, a co-founder and honorary financial adviser of the chamber, said that Hong Kong had always acted as a “superconnector” that built bridges between various parties. Leung’s call for action came before Washington announced on Friday that it would introduce fresh sanctions against entities involved in trading Iranian petroleum. That same day, Brent crude futures for July rose by nearly 1 per cent to hit US$111.41 per barrel. The benchmark has risen for four straight months, with its June contract, which expired on Thursday, surging to US$126.41 a barrel, the highest since March 2022. According to global petrol price data for late April, Hong Kong had the highest diesel and petrol prices in the world at US$4.69 and US$4.15 per litre respectively. In the interview, Leung pointed out that Hong Kong was not an energy-intensive economy and noted that mainland China had shifted towards “new energy” sources, such as solar power. He added that new energy accounted for 20 per cent of the mainland’s energy supply, meaning Hong Kong was “better placed than we would be otherwise”. Leung also touched on the fact that the five-year blueprints for Guangdong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the wider nation covered the development of Hong Kong’s shipping-related sectors, including law firms, insurance companies and the banking and financial industries – key areas that the chamber is promoting. “The development of the shipping sector is going to be a major target for the government’s work in the next five years,” said Leung, who is also a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the country’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. “The central government has stated very clearly that it will support Hong Kong to elevate … its international status as a shipping centre. So that stipulation has been around for at least 20 years for Hong Kong.” Hong Kong aims to draft its first five-year development plan by the end of this year. Leung said while local universities had been told not to expand their law programmes because the city supposedly had enough lawyers, the mainland desperately needed bilingual maritime lawyers. He did not elaborate on the source of the instruction. “We need many, many more lawyers in Hong Kong,” added Leung. “It’s kind of a no-brainer that Hong Kong could and should develop itself into a maritime legal services centre.” Lam, co-founder and CEO of SeaKapital Holdings, an independent Hong Kong-based ship leasing company, said the commercial sector was “most concerned with the welfare of our seafarers” amid the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran. Lam said that prolonged geopolitical disruptions, which raised fuel costs, could drive up global inflation as the end-users would ultimately foot the bill, with a recession and other negative economic repercussions potentially following. Logistics companies have significantly adjusted their air freight fuel surcharges, with UPS and FedEx in early May raising their rates to 47.25 per cent and 45.25 per cent, respectively. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3352289/why-cy-leung-thinks-hong-kong-needs-strengthen-maritime-related-sectors?module=top_story&pgtype=section (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post