Speech by PSTL at LSCM Logistics Summit 2023 (English only)
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The Honourable Deputy Director-General Song Lai (Deputy Director-General of Department of Youth Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Song Lai), Alan (Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre (LSCM), Professor Alan Lam), Simon (Chief Executive Officer of the LSCM, Mr Simon Wong), distinguished guests, friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. Thank you for giving me this good opportunity to join you today for the Logistics Summit, which can allow me to share with you and have an exchange of views and ideas about the logistics developments in Hong Kong, as well as having a forum to showcase an array of pioneering technologies developed by the LSCM and its partners.
Talking about partnership, I could say that I have a long cultivation of partnership and collaboration with the LSCM back to around six to seven years ago when I was the then Commissioner for Transport. Particularly, I want to echo the remarks of Alan, the Chairman, just now about marketing and promotion. I think not only the LSCM, but also the Government, including the Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB) and our family of departments, need to do more promotion and marketing. There has been a lot of work being done over the past three years of COVID because of all sorts of disruption to cross-boundary logistics and cargo transport caused by the precautionary measures. Yet, with all the help of stakeholders and parties, bureaux and departments, especially, thanks to the support and advice from the Central People's Government, we have been helping the whole community of Hong Kong to not only fight the pandemic, but also to maintain a stable and steady supply of food and other commodities from the Mainland to Hong Kong, as well as to transport lots of cargo from overseas through our airport and ports to mainland cities. We are very proud to maintain our role even under the very challenging times.
This three-year period actually enables us to do a very deep-dive SWOT analysis which unveils lots of opportunities, challenges, strengths and weaknesses. These all give us insights to prepare ourselves to build up an even stronger foundation for the logistics developments in Hong Kong, transport connections with the Mainland and overseas, as well as to explore various opportunities for technology applications and adoption in the logistics industry which used to be a very conventional, labour-intensive and not very technology-led business. Yet, we are very confident that, with the LSCM and lots of educational institutions in Hong Kong, we are heading in a very positive direction.
The theme of this year's Summit is Smart Logistics and Greater Bay Area, or GBA in short. It is especially timely and relevant. Under the global trend of smart supply chains and rapid development of e-commerce, our logistics industry is heading in smarter, more competitive and innovative directions through specialisation and digitalisation. These two are indispensable criteria for an international smart logistics hub to continuously improve our operational efficiency and competitiveness.
As an international trade and logistics centre, Hong Kong plays a unique role in connecting the world and the economic development of the GBA. As the Honourable C Y Leung mentioned in his special remarks a couple of minutes ago, the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has stated clear support for the development of high-value air cargo logistics and high value-added maritime services in Hong Kong so as to leverage on Hong Kong's strength as a regional logistics hub. With a total land area of 56 000 square kilometres, a population of over 86 million and a regional GDP of over RMB13 trillion in 2022, the GBA provides a huge market for high-value consumer goods and e-commerce products. It is therefore crucial for us to make good use of Hong Kong's institutional strength, international outlook, prime geographical location and especially professional talents, very dedicated as well, to provide more modern logistics services to the GBA, thereby complementing the strengths of other GBA cities and creating synergy.
In fact, our comprehensive sea, land and air intermodal transportation networks, which earned us the reputation of a premier logistics hub in the region, have enabled cargos from other GBA cities and other parts of the Mainland to be smoothly transshipped to the rest of the world through Hong Kong. To reinforce and enhance such a leading role, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government will continue to improve the intermodal transhipment and transportation, facilities and functions of Hong Kong, hence facilitating the flow of goods inside and beyond the GBA. For example, apart from the Hong Kong International Airport Logistics Park in Dongguan, the Airport Authority Hong Kong is exploring with the Zhuhai Municipal People's Government the development of Hong Kong-Zhuhai international cargo logistics with a view to realising air-land-air direct cargo services through the land connection of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. This also serves indirectly to help us to boost the utilisation of the bridge, which is a national policy as well as a government priority.
In addition to using Hong Kong as a transhipment hub, we welcome enterprises based in the GBA to utilise Hong Kong's smart logistics services and leverage on Hong Kong's advantage as a regional distribution centre to develop e-commerce and high value-added freight forwarding and logistics business. Hong Kong and GBA enterprises could also jointly explore more new business opportunities and new markets for logistics developments, for example, cold chain logistics. This will enable the industry to capture the new demand for modern logistics services in the GBA and promote our development into a modern, high value-added and smart logistics services centre.
The world keeps evolving and so does the logistics industry. To realise the vision of developing Hong Kong into a sustainable international smart logistics hub, the Government has been sparing no effort in promoting the adoption of technological solutions by the logistics industry to enhance operational efficiency and competitiveness through various support measures. For example, the Pilot Subsidy Scheme for Third-party Logistics Service Providers, which I think is very familiar to most of you and your partners, was first launched in October 2020 with an injection of $300 million to provide financial subsidies to local logistics enterprises in acquiring smart logistics solutions, be it hardware such as robotics, automation or computer software. The fund has been very welcomed by the trade. So far, more than 170 logistics enterprises have benefitted from this Scheme with the approved funding amounting to over $120 million. With a view to further encouraging the logistics industry to widely adopt smart logistics solutions, the Pilot Scheme was enhanced in January this year with Government's subsidy ratio for each successful application doubled. I hear from my colleagues and also stakeholders that this has actually been facilitating a lot of our logistics enterprises to further invest or consider technology solutions, and to benefit from this Scheme with the improved and enhanced ratio. Apart from financial support, we have been working with the Hong Kong Productivity Council as well as different industry associations including the LCSM to organise various events to promote smart logistics technology to the industry. The LOGTECH Expo, an annual logistics technology fair, is one of the examples.
What's more, we are formulating an action plan, in consultation with the Hong Kong Logistics Development Council and different stakeholders, many of whom are present today, to consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as a premier international logistics hub. We are actively devising various strategies to meet the short, medium and long-term development needs of the logistics sector. The action plan will be announced very soon. Please stay tuned.
Once again, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the LSCM, Chairman Alan, Simon and your management team, for being a long-term trusted partner of the Government, in particular the TLB and our family of departments, in facilitating the smart logistics developments in Hong Kong. Being an institutional member of the Hong Kong Logistics Development Council and our consultant in developing a port community system for users in the logistics, maritime and port industries, the LSCM has contributed tremendously to the development of international smart logistics hub in Hong Kong. I trust that we can continue to count on the support of the LSCM and of course every one of you, to promote smart logistics and facilitate the GBA development, hence contributing to the continuous development of Hong Kong into a smarter, more efficient and more competitive logistics hub.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I also take this opportunity to wish this Summit every success. I hope all guests today could explore business opportunities emerging from the technology advancement in the industry, as well as possible ideas for development within the GBA in the Summit today.
Thank you.
Ends/Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Issued at HKT 14:52
Issued at HKT 14:52
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