EXECUTIVE DEBATE
Make Hong Kong great again Provocatively Splash asked the Hong Kong maritime community what the focus should be to make shipping great again. Attract cargo interests, shipowners, managers, mainland shipping businesses or others?
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hether it its the shipping hub rankings of Norway’s Menon or the joint studies carried out by Xinhua and the Baltic Exchange, Hong Kong still ranks very high among international maritime centres (IMCs). And yet for those who lived or visited the city around the start of the century, fourth place might seem somewhat of a downgrade to past glories. Splash asked many in the Hong Kong maritime community what would be the best business strand to try and woo in order to bolster the city’s position as a major hub. Some bristled at the
The world’s top shipping hubs Xinhua-Baltic Exchange Menon Economics 1
Singapore
Singapore
2
London
Hamburg
3
Shanghai
Rotterdam
4
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
5
Dubai
London
suggestion Hong Kong was not as great as in the past, while others quickly pinpointed who should be targeted and how. Angad Banga, chief operating officer at the Caravel Group, argues that no particular business vertical should be targeted - best to go for everyone, he says. “Every industry player from the cargo owners to the vessel owners, charterers, managers, and others have a very symbiotic relationship so addressing the needs of just one sub-component of the full ecosystem is not effective,” Banga says. The key, according to Valles Steamship’s executive director, Wellington Koo, is to continue to maintain the growth of the maritime cluster, while not restricting it to business companies or investors of particular backgrounds.
Having said that, Koo does go on to concede that the commercial principals, such as shipowners, managers and traders, are the most important group. “They are the drivers of the maritime industry and generate business for the service companies. If more of these principals are attracted to Hong Kong, related service providers, such as brokers, insurance companies and maritime law firms, will follow,” Koo points out. So in this chicken and egg thinking the argument follows that owners tend to want to be near the charterers at the top of shipping’s food chain, the majority of whom quit Hong Kong for Singapore more than a decade ago. Tim Huxley, chairman of Mandarin Shipping, tells Splash: “We need to encourage more sectors where commercial control and authority is vested in Hong Kong.”
“ We should start with the commercial principals ” www.splash247.com 23
