Theme of Activity (HKMW 2025)
The “Belt and Road” (B&R) Initiative is our nation’s key development strategy based on the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Hong Kong is an international maritime centre, and seeks to participate actively in the development of the B&R initiative, leveraging on its comprehensive transport network as well as its distinct advantages in professional maritime and business services. Of over 150 countries along the B&R corridor, the Hong Kong Port has marine cargo movements with about 100 countries, and has signed bilateral double taxation relief or reciprocal tax exemption agreements covering shipping income with 39 of them.
Building on Hong Kong’s vibrant port and maritime services cluster, apart from nurturing local talents to meet the needs of economic development, Hong Kong strives to attract global talents to enrich our maritime talent pool and to promote high-quality economic development of Hong Kong.
Aiming at developing a vibrant, diversified and competitive pool of professionals and technical personnel, the Government has set up the Maritime and Aviation Training Fund (MATF) to help grooming talents for the maritime industry. The Fund supports various incentive schemes and scholarship programmes, as well as promotion ventures. The MATF has so far benefitted more than 12 500 students and maritime practitioners.
Under the dual advantages of “one country, two systems”, Hong Kong is an important international maritime centre in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) that is world-renowned for its free and efficient port as well as high-value-added professional services. Hong Kong will continue to serve as a super-connector within the GBA to strengthen cooperation and promote the comprehensive advantages of the GBA cluster.
As an international maritime centre, Hong Kong has been promoting the development of green port through different measures and encouraging the industry to adopt more sustainable shipping initiatives. To this end, the Government is committed to ensuring that the local legislation is in compliance with the latest requirements of the International Maritime Organization on environmental protection, and strives to strengthen collaboration with industry stakeholders and different regions to support the green transformation of the shipping industry. The Government also promulgated the Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering in November 2024 to develop Hong Kong into a green maritime fuel bunkering and trading centre.
Hong Kong has become an ideal base for shipping companies worldwide to establish businesses by virtue of our “one country, two systems” principle, bilingual common law, free economy, as well as simple and low tax system. Since 2020, the Government has launched a series of tax concessions, including providing tax exemptions for ship leasing business and offering half-rate tax concessions (with profits tax assessed at 8.25% concessionary rate) for marine insurance, ship management, ship agency and ship broking, with a view to encouraging more shipping commercial principals and maritime services enterprises to establish presence in Hong Kong. The Government will amend the legislation in the first half of 2026 to enhance the existing tax concessions for maritime services industry (including the introduction of tax deduction on ship acquisition cost for ship lessors under an operating lease) in light of the reform in international tax rules; and to provide half-rate tax concessions for physical commodity traders for driving demand for Hong Kong shipping and professional maritime services.
Experienced professional insurance practitioners in Hong Kong provide comprehensive and world-renowned business insurance services to meet the needs of different shipping operations. They generally cover hull and machinery, protection and indemnity and goods in transit (cargo). Since 19 March 2021, the Government has been providing a half-rate profit tax concession (with profits tax assessed at 8.25% concessionary rate) for eligible insurance businesses, including marine insurance. The Government is committed to expand the maritime insurance business, and is engaging the industry with the Insurance Authorityin establishing a dedicated marine risk pool to enhance Hong Kong's underwriting capacity for both local and Mainland markets.
Hong Kong is a renowned centre of shipping and commercial contract formation as well as dispute resolution. With the established common law system, Hong Kong inherits the jurisprudence of adjudications relating to shipping and maritime contracts, providing legal and commercial certainty for maritime enterprises around the world. The International Chamber of Shipping established its first-ever overseas office in Hong Kong in 2019. The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) announced in September 2020 its adoption of the BIMCO Law & Arbitration Clause 2020, which includes Hong Kong as the fourth named arbitration venue, alongside London, New York and Singapore.
Digitalisation is revolutionising the world and transforming the way how businesses operate. It gives the international maritime industry a new impetus to scale new heights. In view of the development of digitalisation of international ports, the Transport and Logistics Bureau is collaborating with the trade to drive the smart port development, including facilitating data flow and sharing between operators and other stakeholders in the port through a port community system, with a view to further enhancing port efficiency and reducing cargo handling time and cost through streamlining and optimising the multi-party co-ordinated processes digitally.
Hong Kong continues to be recognised as a leading international maritime centre, ranking fourth globally in the Xinhua‑Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index for the sixth consecutive year in 2025. Hong Kong is also one of the most efficient international container hub ports. In 2024, the average length of stay of container vessels in the Hong Kong port is one day, about half the average of 1.95 days for the world’s top 20 container ports.
Hong Kong is one of the leading international ship finance centres in Asia. Our vibrant shipping community provides ample opportunities to support the long-term growth of ship finance and ship leasing business. Of the world’s top 10 bookrunners on syndicated marine finance loans, 8 have established offices in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong shipowners and management companies own or manage a large fleet of merchant ships with nearly 10% of the deadweight tonnage of the world’s merchant fleet. Based on the latest statistics, there are 340 ship agents and management companies operating in Hong Kong offering a wide range of professional services in order to ensure smooth sailing of the ships. In addition, five out of the world’s top 10 ship management companies have business presence in Hong Kong, three of which are headquartered in Hong Kong (i.e. as the place with most top 10 companies’ headquarters). Since 1 April 2022, the Government has been providing half-rate profits tax concessions (i.e. at a tax rate of 8.25 per cent) to qualifying shipping commercial principals (i.e. ship agents, ship managers and ship brokers).
With a maritime history of more than 150 years, Hong Kong has developed into an international maritime centre, providing shipping services and a comprehensive spectrum of maritime services for the global shipping community. With our unique institutional strengths and attractive business environment, Hong Kong is the haven for shipping and maritime businesses.