ENG-2000 — Page 329

INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

A consultancy study to examine the potential of Hong Kong as a Replenishment Port and the possible measures to strengthen this role was completed in 2000. The findings will be taken into consideration by the PDSR in developing Hong Kong's future port development plan.

Hong Kong Port and Maritime Board

The Hong Kong Port and Maritime Board is a non-statutory body made up of members appointed by the Chief Executive. Formerly known as the Port Development Board, it was restructured and renamed in June 1998 to take on the additional task of promoting the Hong Kong shipping industry and Hong Kong as an international shipping centre.

Hong Kong is one of the few major international ports in the world where port facilities are fully privately owned and operated. The board provides the forum for the Government and private sectors to work together to maintain Hong Kong's status as a world class port and an international maritime centre.

The Port Development Committee of the board recommends strategies for planning new port facilities. It also conducts port cargo forecasts and assesses port development needs in the light of changing demand, port capacity, productivity, performance and competition both locally and regionally.

Hong Kong has a successful shipping industry with many well known and experienced shipowners, ship management companies and shipping-related companies. The Shipping Committee of the board formulates measures to promote synergy between the port, shipping and shipping-related industries, and to facilitate the operation of shipping industry in Hong Kong.

To make the Hong Kong Shipping Register more competitive, new measures were introduced in April 1999. These improvements included reduced fees and a simplified but still rigorous survey cycle that would again lower costs while maintaining Hong Kong's reputation as a quality register. Since then, more owners have registered their ships in Hong Kong, and the total tonnage of the Hong Kong Shipping Register reached 10 million tonnes at the end of 2000, an increase of 25 per cent over 1999. In order to enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong as a logistics hub, a Committee on Logistics Service Development was set up under the Port and Maritime Board in May. It provides a forum for exchange of views between the public and private sector organisations, including the port, aviation, freight forwarding and logistics services sectors. The committee made recommendations to improve the physical, cyber and regulatory, and human resources infrastructure to facilitate the development of the logistics sector.

Harbour Area Treatment Scheme

In 2000 significant progress was made with the scheme to provide modern sewage treatment services for the five and a half million people who live around the main harbour area. Excavation of the 25 kilometres of collection tunnels serving Tsuen Wan, Kowloon, Tseung Kwan O and Chai Wan was completed in November. Digging these tunnels, up to 150 metres below the city and between 3.5 and five metres in diameter, in very difficult rock conditions, has been one of Hong Kong's most impressive engineering achievements. It is invisible to the community, but will allow the sewage from over three million people to be brought for treatment at the

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