ENG-2009 — Page 330

262 | Transport

Efficient, reliable and well connected, Hong Kong's airport and seaport are vital to the territory's logistics industry. The airport handles an average of about 64 000 tonnes of cargo every week. A new air cargo terminal is being planned and would be available in 2013 to provide additional capacity to meet anticipated demand from growth.

Hong Kong is also home to the most productive and efficient container terminals and to the biggest private terminal operators in the world. A comprehensive network of container line services connects the port of Hong Kong with over 500 destinations across the globe. Coupled with its round-the-clock operation, the nine container terminals at Kwai Chung-Tsing Yi provide a total handling capacity of more than 19 million TEUS per year.

Development of Hong Kong Logistics Industry

The Government is committed to maintaining and strengthening Hong Kong as Asia's preferred international transport and logistics hub. It provides the necessary infrastructure and environment for Hong Kong's logistics sector to grow. It also promotes closer co-operation with the Mainland, in particular, the Pearl River Delta region to achieve synergies in logistics development.

The Hong Kong Logistics Development Council, chaired by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, provides a forum for the private and public sectors to foster logistics development to strengthen Hong Kong's position as the leading logistics. hub in Asia. Five project groups have been set up under the council to develop and implement work programmes for physical infrastructure, information connectivity, human resource development, support for small and medium enterprises, and marketing and promotion.

To enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong's trucking sector and the logistics. industry in general, the Government sponsored a pilot project on the development of an On-Board Trucker Information System (OBTIS). OBTIS is an information and communications technology platform, which helps enhance efficiency in fleet management and connectivity between truckers and stakeholders along the supply chain. The first phase involving testing the system's basic features in 50 trucks was completed in 2008. A full exercise, involving 500 trucks, is now in progress.

To ensure that employees of the logistics sector are kept abreast of new technology for and development of the trade, the council jointly organised training programmes, workshops and forums with industry associations for logistics practitioners. It also sponsored a number of events for the sharing of experience by stakeholders.

With the support of the council, the Government continued to provide sites for port back-up and logistics uses in Hong Kong, particularly in the vicinity of container terminals. In his 2009-2010 Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced Government's plan to facilitate the development of a logistics cluster in the Kwai Tsing area. Several pieces of permanent sites have been identified for the purpose and will be released on lease terms conducive to the anchoring of third party logistics players and leading brands.

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