Mr President (Mr Knud Pontoppidan), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

Good evening. First of all, on behalf of the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong Maritime Industry Council, let me extend a very warm welcome to you all to this evening's reception.

BIMCO is a forward-looking organization. To help ensure that the shipping community is always ready to deal with changes, BIMCO recognises the challenges its members are facing in areas such as safety and security, environmental protection and sustainability, regulation and governance. Through BIMCO's activities, such as organizing seminars and workshops for enhancing the international knowledge and skills of the maritime professionals, participating in international fora including the International Maritime Organization to reflect the need of the industry and the commercial reality, producing clearly worded and well balanced standard forms of contract which are well adopted by the industry, the shipping sector has been steaming ahead and achieving enviable results in the past few years. The global maritime trade had achieved an average annual growth of over 4% from 2000 to 2005, and the world's merchant fleet grew by over 7% in 2005.

Hong Kong, as a long-standing member of the international maritime community is no stranger to such challenges. In the past century and a half we have had our fair share of ups and downs, challenges and changes, but we have grown steadily to transform ourselves from a small fishing village to what we are today, a leading international shipping and maritime centre. This is of course due in no small part to the hard work and entrepreneurship of Hong Kong's shipping community. Equally important is the fact that we are fortunate to be situated right on the doorstep of today's economic powerhouse, China, making Hong Kong the gateway to the opportunities that have long attracted traders to this huge market, which is now the world's 4th largest economy.

In recent years, Hong Kong's shipping and maritime industry has made very good progress, and there is every indication that this momentum will be sustained in the foreseeable future. Ladies and gentlemen, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, we have put together, in partnership with the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, an exhibition that portrays Hong Kong's achievements in the shipping and maritime industry since 1997. The exhibition highlights not only our achievements, but also the clear potential for Hong Kong's further development as a centre for the international shipping business. We greatly value our relationship with ship-owners and ship managers, and I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities that Hong Kong offers to you all.

Lastly, I understand that the 2007 BIMCO General Meeting is more than just a general meeting in the conventional sense. It offers participants the chance to share information, to renew old friendship and to build new partnerships. To this end, I wish the 2007 BIMCO General Meeting every success and all of you a most enjoyable evening.

Thank you.

Economic Development Branch
Economic Development and Labour Bureau
May 2007