Roundup: Transportation Vital to HK's Economic Growth

Hong Kong is a living example of how government and business can best exploit the opportunities presented to the transportation and logistics sector by the Internet Age, analysts said Monday.

The transportation and logistics industry is vital to Hong Kong 's economic growth, Secretary for Economic Services Sandra Lee said when addressing the first International Summit on Transport and Logistics opportunities in the Internet Age.

"As one of the world's top 10 trading economies, we must continue to build and expand on our role as a global trader," Lee said. "After all trading - and by extension, transportation and logistics - has been our lifeblood for over a century and a half," she noted.

Lee said Hong Kong thrived on transportation and that was particularly the case in the use of its magnificent deep-water port as the principal artery for its physical connection to the world.

Statistics showed that Hong Kong operates the world's busiest container port -- over 18 million container "boxes" last year, more than 216,000 vessels of all sizes, some 380 container-liner services per week, and over 500 links to the world. It is adding to that capacity with the construction of a new container terminal.

A new Marine Cargo Terminal at the airport will reportedly begin operating at the end of this month providing direct 24-hour access to 16 ports in the Pearl River Delta, and the Airport Authority has recently awarded a tender for the development of a 1. 4 hectare logistics center to further expand the airport's capabilities.

Participants in Monday's meeting believed that China's membership of the World Trade Organization in the near future would deliver renewed impetus to the growth of regional trade and new opportunities for Hong Kong's transportation and logistics sector.

Turning to impact of the Internet Age, Lee said the advent of the Information Age had probably done more than anything else to revolutionize key aspects of the global supply chain and the implementation of advanced manufacturing systems.

Hong Kong, with its telecommunications backbone and IT mindset, has the vision of becoming Asia's world city with a flourishing e- business infrastructure.

According to latest figures released by the HK Economic Service Department, almost 40 percent of the city's population is connected to the Internet, and the broadband coverage is 100 percent for commercial buildings and over 90 percent for domestic households.

"As the first city to fully digitize its telecommunications networks, we stand to excel in this new arena and we intend to make the most of it," Lee concluded.

The three-day international summit is organized by the Institute for International Research in association with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.






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