There are many reasons why companies would pick Hong Kong to base their company: a business friendly environment, great geographical location, connectivity in the region, easy access to Mainland China and unshakable rule of law. But why would Hong Kong be a great destination for companies active in shipping & logistics specifically? Three of our corporate members explained in this interesting webinar.
On 30 March, the webinar started with a brief introduction by our moderator Mr Peter Cremers, Chairman of Anglo-Eastern Ship Management. Opening remarks are kindly provided by Mr Benjamin Wong, Head of Transport, Infrastructure & Advanced Manufacturing at InvestHK.
He talked about Hong Kong as an International Maritime Centre. He pointed out that China (including HK) owns about 201 million dwt (dead-weight tons), accounting almost 16% of the world’s fleet. And that Hong Kong Shipping Register ranks 4th globally by gross tonnage, accounting for 10°% of the world merchant fleet. Three of the world’s top 10 busiest container ports are in the Greater Bay area, namely Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. This makes Hong Kong one of the most significant international ship finance centres in Asia. Hong Kong is definitely a premier logistics hub in Asia and a perfect gateway for trade between Mainland China and the rest of the world. He also talked about the trends going on in the Logistics Industry:
- E-Commerce Logistics
- Cold Chain Logistics
- Smart Logistics: 5G
Finally he talked about the Hong Kong Maritime Week 2022. A fabulous week of multifarious maritime activities covering themes of shipping and maritime, ship finance, maritime law and arbitration, marine insurance, ship management, maritime technology, port and logistics and maritime education and career.
Following the opening presentation of Mr Benjamin Wong, Mr Bjorn Hojgaard, CEO Anglo-Eastern Ship Management and Mr Benoit De Swert, CEO Ziegler Logistics Hong Kong took the stage to share their views on Hong Kong’s role.
At the end, Mr Cremers invited the audience for a Q&A session. Attendees were able to submit their questions online and Mr Hojgaard, Mr De Swert and Mr Wong were ready to answer them.