Editorial | ‘Partner port’ ties will help Hong Kong navigate global trade volatility
New deals with mainland Chinese and Chilean ports will enhance the city’s status as an international hub for finance, shipping and trading
City leader John Lee Ka-chiu said the partnerships with key maritime centres on the mainland and in South America “are of strategic importance” and true to Hong Kong’s “character and policy priorities”. The chief executive told the 15th Asian Logistics, Maritime and Aviation Conference that the deals with China’s Guangxi and Dalian ports, as well as Port San Antonio in Chile, were a “timely response” to rising geopolitical tensions and volatility in global trade policies. Noting “considerable challenges” faced by the maritime, aviation and logistics industries, Lee said responses should include market diversification as well as offsetting increased costs with “technology-enabled efficiencies”.
At the separate Hong Kong Global Maritime Trade Summit, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said he expected geopolitics to “reshape rather than weaken maritime trade flows”. He said intra-Asia container volumes currently are “outpacing the global average”.
Industry experts have praised the port partnerships. Willy Lin, chairman of the Hong Kong Shippers’ Council, said the deals were “very strategically location-specific” and a necessary response to competition in cargo sources. Lin also said the partnerships leveraged sea-rail links to extend Hong Kong’s market reach.
The Dalian partnership was seen as a way to secure priority access to “green fuel”, while the San Antonio deal aimed to tie up the city’s “cold chain supply” of cherries.
Lin estimated that 46 per cent of all Chilean cherries pass through the nation’s San Antonio port, with 60 per cent riding through Hong Kong to enter the mainland.