No one can accuse Singapore of sticking a sock down its maritime industry pants to enhance the size of its hub – it has the genuine article.
A few weeks ago, Hong Kong shipping tycoon George Chao called on the government to appoint a shipping minister and to start taking the maritime industry seriously, just like they do in Singapore.
That idea was met by silence from the HK government, which is so laissez faire in its laissez faireness that we often wonder if it knows we actually have a maritime industry. Look out your window, fellas. Those things moving all over Victoria Harbour are boats.
You wouldn’t know from the department supposedly responsible for transport matters because it also deals with housing in Hong Kong. Yes, I give you the Transport and Housing Bureau.
That says a lot about how the maritime business is regarded. The only thing transport has in common with housing is that it is housed under the same leaking roof.
In Singapore, the industry gets far more direct attention. According to the government of Singapore there are 5,000 companies involved in the maritime business in the city. They range from shipping lines to shipbrokers, law firms, ship managers, repair companies, shipyards, agents, etc.
The Lion City offers incentives to shipping companies that include concessionary port dues for ocean-going ships, 20 percent discount in port fees for container ships, tax holidays, tax cuts, subsidised training through a maritime fund.
The South China Morning Post this week compared those perks with the incentives offered by Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Shipping Register, the world’s fifth largest, allows those flying the HKSAR flag lower port charges at mainland ports and greater access to cheaper Chinese crew.
That’s it. The incentives are by no means insignificant, but they pale when compared with those offered by Singapore.
Of course, Singapore is obsessed with becoming an international maritime centre and will do whatever it takes to get there, even abbreviating the words, “international maritime centre”. (Maybe the city will finally announce it has achieved IMC status now that it has lost the world’s busiest port title.)
But anyway, it is hard to see how this all threatens Hong Kong. Even Shanghai’s growing importance in the mainland maritime business is not a threat and it is just up the coast.
No, the real threat to Hong Kong is a lot closer. The government’s hands off approach is largely because it has no real idea how or where to stick its hands in, choosing instead to pay large sums of money to consultants and then dallying over the conclusions it feels are a little too stark.