President, the 2024 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index ranks Hong Kong fourth as its port conditions, overall environment, and professional maritime services are all among the best in the world. In the past few years, the economic contribution of the maritime services industry has continued to grow. With 90% of the world’s cargo transported primarily by sea, maritime services are indispensable. The SAR Government must seize development opportunities and continue to actively expand Hong Kong’s maritime services industry.  

The Liberal Party supports the development of high value-added maritime services. Therefore, we have supported the SAR Government’s previous proposals to provide tax incentives to enterprises engaged in ship leasing and management, marine insurance and other related activities, with the aim of expanding the maritime services cluster. At present, there are over 1 100 enterprises in Hong Kong running businesses related to maritime services and providing diversified international maritime services.

In order to attract more overseas maritime enterprises to set up operations in Hong Kong, the Liberal Party hopes that the Government will review the tax arrangements for high value-added maritime services and draw on the tax measures implemented by competitors with a view to further reducing the tax rates and optimizing the relevant tax arrangements. In addition, as shipping is an international business, the SAR Government must continue to pursue the signing of double taxation relief arrangements for shipping income with more countries and regions.

Currently, the members of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association own, manage and operate a fleet with a combined carrying capacity of over 231 million deadweight tonnes, accounting for 10% of the total deadweight tonnage of the world’s merchant fleet, which has driven the development of Hong Kong’s ship finance business. China now has the world’s largest fleet and has become a major shipbuilding nation, producing more than half of the world’s commercial vessels. Moreover, in response to the International Maritime Organization’s push to achieve zero-carbon emission targets, more shipowners are ordering new green-fuel vessels. It is therefore expected that shipbuilding orders will continue to grow. The SAR Government should introduce measures to attract shipowners to finance their new vessels in Hong Kong. This would not only consolidate Hong Kong’s status as an international ship finance centre, but also help develop other related maritime services such as maritime law, marine insurance and ship broking. 

Talent training is very important to enhance Hong Kong’s status as an international maritime services centre. The Liberal Party supports the Government’s proposal in last year’s Policy Address to expand the scope of the Maritime and Aviation Training Fund to cover more green energy courses and marine insurance examinations to tie in with the development of relevant industries. However, the Liberal Party believes that maritime law training should also be covered. 

Hong Kong has a well-established judicial system and is one of the most popular arbitration venues in the world. Hong Kong has been designated by the Baltic and International Maritime Council as one of the four arbitration venues, demonstrating its recognized role in handling maritime disputes and arbitration. As maritime arbitration requires expertise in international shipping, the Government should expand the scope of the fund to cover training for related professionals so as to nurture more professional lawyers and arbitrators, thereby consolidating Hong Kong’s status as a maritime arbitration centre. 

In his Policy Address last year, the Chief Executive proposed to upgrade and reconstitute the existing Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board into the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Development Board. The Liberal Party hopes that the Government will soon appoint the Chairman of the new Board to take forward the work outlined in the Action Plan on Maritime and Port Development Strategy and the Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering, with a view to enhancing Hong Kong’s competitiveness in port and maritime services.

In conclusion, the Liberal Party would like to emphasize that, in addition to providing high-quality professional maritime services, the SAR Government must continue to attract more ocean-going vessels to berth in Hong Kong, as the two are closely linked. We are grateful to the Government for accepting the Liberal Party’s long-standing proposal to attract commodity trading to Hong Kong and to develop a green maritime fuel (particularly methanol) bunkering centre. We believe that both proposals will help to consolidate Hong Kong’s status as an international maritime centre and promote the development of the maritime industry.

With these remarks, I support the original motion and the amendments.