At the Legislative Council in late May, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said shipping companies considered financial subsidies from the government neither financially sustainable nor an effective solution, while addressing concerns about the negative impact on Hong Kong from staggering port fees proposed by the United States.

“In contrast,” Chan told LegCo, “the industry hopes that the government can better consolidate the edges for the maritime sector operating in Hong Kong”.

The concerns stemmed from the US’ announcement in April to impose port fees on vessels owned or operated by the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao companies, and vessels built in China, for the use of US ports. Effective Oct 14, the fee has been proposed at $2.5 million per entry into a US port for a vessel of 50,000 net tonnage, increasing annually to $7 million in April 2028. Each vessel will be charged up to a maximum of five times per year.

Though incentives and concessions were listed at the top of the four key areas of focus mapped out by Chan at LegCo, ruling out subsidies as a long-term solution with avowed stress on strength consolidation instead perhaps makes it a good time to deepen focus on the “blue economy” to enhance Hong Kong’s maritime competitiveness with a unified policy.

The World Bank defines blue economy as the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs, while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem”, with an annual turnover of $3 trillion to $6 trillion, as estimated by the United Nations.

Recently, a World Wide Fund for Nature-commissioned study by the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences quantified, apparently for the first time, the value of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s coastal ecosystems. A paper titled “Valuing the Invaluable Blue”, which collated the findings, revealed a gross ecosystem product (GEP) worth 4.9 trillion yuan ($683 billion) in 2022, equivalent to nearly 38 percent of the Greater Bay Area’s GDP of 13 trillion yuan for the same period, with 73 percent contributed by marine ecosystems. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, GEP is the total value of final ecosystem goods and services supplied to human well-being in a given region annually, like a county, a province, or a country.

The paper posits that in the Greater Bay Area coastal zone, “the economic value per unit area of marine ecosystems is significantly higher than that of terrestrial ecosystems”. The findings reveal terrestrial habitat contributes approximately 54.4 million yuan per square kilometer in GEP, while marine habitat contributes as much as 131 million yuan per square kilometer — about 2.4 times higher. This disparity has been attributed to efficient service capabilities of marine ecosystems in climate regulation, carbon storage, and disaster buffering, providing critical support for the sustainable development of the Greater Bay Area.

Why are the findings significant?

In Hong Kong, authorities divide marine economy-related activities broadly into six categories: the maritime transport and port industry; marine tourism; marine utilization, extraction, production and related manufacturing; wholesale and retail of marine products; marine public administration and social services; and marine scientific research, technology and information services.

Of these, as per Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan’s reply to lawmakers during a question-and-answer session in May, the maritime transportation and port industry contributed 4.2 percent to Hong Kong’s GDP in 2022 and accounted for 2.1 percent of its total employment.

And the blueprint for Hong Kong’s Tourism Industry 2.0 aims to make “more and better use of” Hong Kong’s island and coastline tourism resources, by way of enhancing marine tourism.

Tse also submitted that “marine utilization, extraction, production, and related manufacturing”, along with “wholesale and retail of marine products”, were partially related to capture fisheries and mariculture and as such quoted Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department data to cite that local capture fisheries and mariculture production in 2023 stood at approximately 87,000 metric tons, valued at HK$2.4 billion ($305.9 million). Significantly, Tse said that as for the remaining three categories, their value-added contributions “could not be estimated due to limited data”.

This is telling, considering Tse was addressing concerns about views that it is difficult for a single-policy bureau to coordinate interdepartmental resources, as development of marine economy involves various portfolios.

Interestingly, also in late May, in her paper titled “From Port 1.0 to Port 2.0: Hong Kong’s Next Leap to Evolving a Blue Economy Vision”, Christine Loh Kung-wai, chief development strategist at the Institute for the Environment at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, pointed out, “Indeed, policy fragmentation threatens Hong Kong’s competitiveness.”

Loh, a former undersecretary for the environment, writes, “By also aligning with the broader blue economy agenda, Hong Kong can build a port and marine system that is competitive, inclusive, and resilient. This is not only about cargo, but also about rethinking the harbor as a space for innovation, for communities, for sustainability and climate action, and for convivial living.”

Often, circumstantial hurdles germinate a will to explore alternatives excluded by a vision that is generally accepted as defined and convenient. A stellar policy straddles both the will and the vision to look beyond the obvious when the obvious has run its course.

Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that blue is the new green.

The author is an award-winning English-language fiction writer and current-affairs commentator.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.