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.
“We should take a long view of the day-to-day issues in this rather unpredictable development of events around the US, Israel and Iran war,” he said.
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“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.