The release of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s first five-year plan is an important moment for the city’s development. For the maritime sector, it is especially significant: It places Hong Kong’s evolution as an international maritime center within a longer-term policy framework, and gives clearer direction for high-quality growth.
The central government has consistently supported Hong Kong in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international maritime center. Both words matter. “Consolidating” points to Hong Kong’s established institutional foundations, international connectivity and professional services strengths. “Enhancing” means moving further up the global maritime value chain.
Public discussion of Hong Kong’s maritime sector often centers on container throughput, port rankings and route networks. These indicators remain important. But if an international maritime center is understood mainly through those measures, Hong Kong’s real competitive strengths risk being understated.
International shipping today is no longer simply a contest between ports. As supply chains are restructured, the green transition accelerates, geopolitical risks rise and commercial rules evolve, so competition increasingly turns to high-end services, the institutional environment and the ability to allocate global resources. The more value-added parts of the maritime industry are often not at the terminal, but in finance, insurance, ship leasing and management, legal and dispute resolution services, risk management and green transition-related services.
Hong Kong’s maritime future should therefore not be framed simply as regaining a ranking or restoring a throughput level. The more important task is high-end upgrading and value creation. Hong Kong should not replicate the scale- and cost-based competition of neighboring ports, but secure a higher-value, more institutionally sophisticated and less replaceable role in the global shipping value chain.
Hong Kong has the conditions to do so. Its advantage has never been merely that it has a port, but that it combines a common law system, free port status, an international financial center platform, a mature professional services market and a unique role linking the Chinese mainland with international markets. Shipping is a complex international industry built on contracts, financing, insurance, settlement, compliance and dispute resolution. Jurisdictions that provide stable, clear, credible and efficient services across these dimensions are best placed to become true modern international maritime centers.
Viewed through the lens of the first five-year plan, the next step should be to deepen high value-added maritime services. The plan proposes strengthening such services, enhancing the ship registration regime, and leveraging Hong Kong’s strengths in ship management, ship finance, marine insurance and maritime arbitration. That direction comes at exactly the right time. As global shipping faces major financing needs driven by green transition, fleet renewal and changing trade patterns, Hong Kong can play a more proactive role in ship finance, leasing, green finance and related investment platforms.
Marine insurance and risk management also deserve greater prominence. International shipping now faces not only traditional maritime risks, but also risks arising from war, sanctions, supply chain disruption, cybersecurity and decarbonization. Stronger capabilities in marine insurance, reinsurance, protection and indemnity, claims handling and dispute resolution would directly support Hong Kong’s international maritime center status.
Maritime legal and dispute resolution services are a critical component. International shipping transactions are complex, contractual chains are long, and disputes are common. Market participants look not only at whether a port is efficient and well connected, but also at whether rules are clear, contracts can be enforced and disputes resolved reliably. Deeper integration of legal services and dispute resolution with maritime development would strengthen Hong Kong’s institutional foundations and better serve mainland enterprises going global, as well as international businesses managing cross-border activities through Hong Kong.
High-end upgrading should not be seen as adding separate service lines. Hong Kong needs a high value-added maritime services ecosystem. Businesses choosing a maritime center assess whether it can connect transactions, financing, risk management and dispute resolution, and remain predictable in a complex environment. The plan’s emphasis on collaboration among industry stakeholders and training institutions, and on building a systematic training framework and stable talent pool, directly addresses the human capital needed for such an ecosystem.
Hong Kong’s maritime development must also be understood within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the country’s modern transport network. The plan emphasizes stronger synergy, high-quality collaborative port development, deeper cooperation with mainland and overseas shipping ports, and lower transshipment costs through a comprehensive “rail-sea-land-river” intermodal system to stabilize container throughput. As Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou form part of the same world-class port cluster, the better path is not homogenized competition, but differentiated positioning and coordinated development.
Hong Kong should retain and optimize necessary port functions. More importantly, it should focus on international connectivity, high-end services, institutional supply and global resource allocation. The plan proposes diversified and resilient international transportation corridors, faster sea-air intermodal transshipment, and stronger status as an international transshipment hub. Shenzhen and Guangzhou have advantages in hinterland, scale and manufacturing support, while Hong Kong’s strengths lie in international finance, professional services, the common law system and global networks. With clearer division of labor and stronger coordination, Hong Kong can become the high-end services hub and international functional platform for the broader Greater Bay Area port cluster.
This is also part of Hong Kong’s role in serving the country’s high-standard opening-up. Building a maritime power requires not only more ports and a larger fleet, but stronger capabilities in financing, insurance, legal services, risk management and alignment with international rules. Hong Kong has a distinctive foundation in these areas, and the first five-year plan is an opportunity to align those strengths more closely with the country’s needs.
Hong Kong’s next-stage maritime development should not seek to return to an earlier model based primarily on port traffic. It should respond to changing international shipping dynamics by moving toward a more value-added, higher-end and institutionally supported path.
Anchored in the themes of “stabilizing container throughput, adding value, and strengthening synergy”, the first five-year plan points toward smart and green ports, logistics data interconnection, green maritime fuel, collaborative port development and high value-added maritime services. If matched by sharper policy focus, stronger cross-sector coordination and clearer functional division of labor within the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong will be well placed to become a more influential modern hub for high-end maritime services.
The author is principal representative of the International Chamber of Shipping (China) Liaison Office, and a member of the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit Expert Group and the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Development Board.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
