Maritime education explains HK's status as shipping center

The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area states clearly that an important basis for the development of the Bay Area is its obvious geographical advantages, especially the convenient transportation condition, including Hong Kong as an international shipping center, and Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the globally top-ranking throughput ports. Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as the central cities of the outline, jointly form the Pearl River Delta port group with top international competitiveness. Taking a closer look at the relevant provisions of the outline, Hong Kong plays a significant leading role in the perspective of shipping development. Not only was it again recognized as the only international shipping center by the authoritatively national document, it was also separated from Guangzhou and Shenzhen's ability to upgrade infrastructure facilities such as ports and waterway. The outline supports Hong Kong to develop high-end shipping services including ship management and leasing, ship financing, marine insurance, maritime law and dispute resolution.

 

There is no doubt that Hong Kong not only triumphs over other major port cities on the Chinese mainland but also over other ports in the Asia-Pacific region in the high-end shipping services mentioned above. In the 2018 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index, Hong Kong has surpassed London for the first time to become the second-largest shipping center in the world.

 

However, it is easy to overlook that one of the factors behind Hong Kong's status as an international shipping center is that Hong Kong has a good foundation in providing maritime education, and many education institutions have offered shipping related majors or courses. For example, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Department of Logistics and Shipping offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in international shipping and logistics, while the City University of Hong Kong has the Hong Kong Commercial and Maritime Law Centre, which offers postgraduate courses in maritime law and the law of the carriage of goods by sea; in collaboration with the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education offers undergraduate degree programs in maritime transport and logistics to working professionals; and the Maritime Services Training Institute under the Vocational Training Council provides a wide range of training courses for seafarers and maritime related practitioners. In addition, international maritime organizations, e.g. the Baltic and International Maritime Council, as well as local shipping associations, e.g. the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, regularly or irregularly offer short to medium-term training courses to the working population to meet the needs of the industry.

 

In addition, the HKSAR government has also been paying more and more attention to the nurturing of all-rounded maritime talents. As early as 2014, the Maritime and Aviation Training Fund, in the amount of HK$100 million, was set up and operated. In the Policy Address released in November last year, as one of the eight initiatives to support and enhance the development of high value-added maritime services, the government decided to invest an additional HK$200 million in the fund to strengthen the cultivation of industry professionals, covering most of the professional training courses as mentioned above. Many firms including the author's law firm have benefited from the support of the fund by appointing trainee solicitors and junior lawyers to attend maritime law-related training courses. The fund reimbursed 80 percent of the fee to the attendees and the firm only had to pay 20 percent. This support not only greatly reduced the financial pressure of employee training for private entities, but also motivated the private entities and employees to join this kind of training courses.

 

Talents are the key to the sustainable development of an industry and the whole society. For Hong Kong's shipping industry, it can only maintain its vitality and bring a steady stream of fresh blood to the industry by continuously nurturing local talents and attracting overseas talents. However, it is undeniable that the biggest problem facing either the traditional shipping and port industries or the high-end shipping services in Hong Kong is the shortage of talents, which is the biggest bottleneck hindering the development and expansion of Hong Kong's shipping and port industry.

 

When Hong Kong is mentioned nowadays, most people think of the "lucrative" industry or professionals such as finance, real estate, lawyers and doctors. For many young people, shipping seems too far away from their daily life, while traditional shipping and ports are "sunset" industries that are no longer important to Hong Kong. Therefore, in order to attract more local talents to actively participate in the shipping industry, what the government and the industry need to do is to let more students in secondary schools and universities understand and get familiar with it. It is important to convey the message that although the shipping industry has a long history, it does not just mean traveling far away for a long time as a crewman living a difficult and dangerous life. On the contrary, the shipping industry consists of diversified and well-respected occupations such as management positions in shipping or terminal companies, marine engineers, superintendents of ships, naval architectures, maritime lawyers, shipping finance specialists, marine insurance brokers and claims handlers. Also, following the development of shipping technology, innovative technological industries such as environmental protection, blockchain and autonomous vessels may lay down new definition for maritime adventure in the future.

 

Apart from cultivating local talents, attracting overseas high-end and scarce talents are the top priority for Hong Kong to ensure it can consolidate and upgrade its international, diversified and high-level shipping center. The development of the Bay Area provides a solid policy foundation for this purpose. The outline sets a clear strategic position for the Bay Area, especially for the convenient and regulated flows of personnel, materials, capitals and information, providing opportunities for the industrialization of Hong Kong's maritime education and attracting talents from the mainland and overseas to receive maritime-related training in Hong Kong. With increasing demand for talents in the fields of shipping finance, marine insurance and maritime arbitration from the mainland and Hong Kong, Hong Kong should seize the opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative and the development of Bay Area to build Hong Kong into a training base for high-end shipping services together with domestic and foreign enterprises and institutions.

 

Source:Edward Liu,Chinadaily

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