| |
Dear HAFFA
Members,
After three
long years of battling the pandemic, Hong Kong is finally emerging from the
tunnel and returning to a sense of normalcy. With Covid-19 measures scrapped
and borders with the Mainland reopened, the city can breathe a sigh of relief.
However, the road to recovery for businesses is with challenges. Many have
already experienced a drastic fall in turnover, with reserves nearly depleted
and manpower shortages hindering their recovery efforts. It’s a daunting task
to make a fast comeback, and Hong Kong still has a long way to go before
regaining a solid footing on the road to recovery. Despite these obstacles,
Financial Secretary Paul Chan remained optimistic about the future, as the
Mainland’s economy regains steam and restrictions on cross-boundary truck
movements are lifted. Hong Kong is firmly back on the world map, and there is
hope that positive improvements will be seen in the city's economic recovery
later in the year. The Association has worked tirelessly to
reflect Members’ voices at Government-level consultation meetings as you can
see our efforts being made in this annual report including sub-committee
reports.
BREAKTHOUGHS
– WE FOUGHT FOR MEMBERS SUCCESSFULLY!!
(1)
Road
to restore the transhipment of cargo (land-air and sea-air) on re-exporting the
e-cigarettes products via Hong Kong
The Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021
(the Ordinance) came into operation on 30 April 2022. The Ordinance did not
allow transshipment of such cargo (land-air or sea-air) via Hong Kong. HAFFA
received a large number of complaints from Members, reflected that the
Ordinance has had a seriously detrimental effect on the business environment.
The Association has written to the Chief Executive/Policy Bureau/LegCo on this
matter five times, issued many press releases and conducted an industry
questionnaire in January 2022. The results of the survey (data used by the
Government in its papers) showed that the affected e-cigarette cargo is
estimated at 330,000 tons per year, which translates to a loss to Hong Kong of
approximately 10% of our annual export volume by air. Since the Ordinance came
into effect in May 2022, the volume of air cargo exports has continued to
plummet, with the cumulative decline close to 30%. In addition to factors such
as the global economy, the sluggish epidemic situation, and the sharp reduction
in cross-border land transport capacity, one of the main reasons for the export
decline is the loss of e-cigarette product transshipment business from the
Mainland. It also drove to the bad change of policy under which lithium
batteries shipments can now be exported from some Mainland airports
directly. The Ordinance has led to a
serious decline in Hong Kong’s overall air export volume, causing the forwarders,
airlines, cargo terminals and Hong Kong International Airport to lose hundreds
of thousands of tons of re-exports every year. This is bound to shake Hong
Kong's status as a regional transshipment hub, and people's livelihoods have
been dealt a huge blow.
HAFFA
agrees with the original intention of the legislation to protect public health
and establish a smoke-free Hong Kong, but at the same time we strongly urge
the government to allow the freight and logistics industry to restore the
transshipment mode which is vital to the survival of the industry. For the
sake of alleviating government concerns, HAFFA submitted a proposal to the
Government on secured cross-border land transportation to prevent illegal
e-cigarette products from entering the black market through land transshipment.
Following numerous lobbying efforts made, we are gratifying that the
Government is willing to take our views and confirms to relax the transshipment
ban (land-air and sea-air) on re-exporting the e-cigarettes products via Hong
Kong. While awaiting the passage of the Bill by the LegCo, several meetings on
the proposal of land-air e-cigarette transshipments have been conducted with
the Customs and Excise Department with a hope that systems testings and trial
can be carried out as soon as practical.
(2)
Legislative Control
of Cannabidiol (CBD)
CBD has been listed as a
dangerous drug under the control of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (“DDO”) in
Hong Kong commencing from 1 February 2023. Through the large-scale survey conducted
in late-June 2022, HAFFA understands that one of the major concerns about legal
control of CBD raised by Members is: what are the reasonable steps and due
diligence to ensure themselves that the goods they are asked to handle do not
consist of illegal commodities. To this end, the Association wrote to SB, in
which the recommended steps for import and export shipments were listed.
Positive reply from SB was received. In short, the Bureau recognizes our
recommended steps which is a good practice in cargo handling.
HAFFA
being the only Association was invited to meet with the officials of the SB and
the Customs
and Excise Department in December 2022 with a hope to address Members’ concern
on CBD transshipment. After the meeting, SB proposed and HAFFA consolidated a
list of practical questions for the FAQ on CBD. Members can download the HAFFA FAQ document with answers plus sample of disclaimer
provided by SB for reference. Trust that it will help Members better understand
the requirements under CBD to effectively comply with the law.
(3)
Fulfill the mandatory
requirement of CBTA (Competency-based Training and Assessment) for all DG
related trainings
We
have liaised with the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (HKCAD) and IATA to
channel members’ concerns & views, as well as made clarifications on a lot
of issues. We took the lead and precise planning was made to organize the
largest DG joint webinar on “DG Awareness with a Focus on CBTA” held on 11 Nov
2022, again with a high record of participation.
Moreover,
HAFFA has become the first and only trade association to receive
accreditation from HKCAD to organize Dangerous Goods (DG) Awareness Self Study
Examinations under CBTA. Under the evolution from traditional learning to
CBTA, HAFFA has long been the only training provider to produce a comprehensive
HKCAD-approved DG Awareness Self-Study Manual. The manual contains case
studies, self-study exercises, DG labels and illustrations, and is designed to
save practitioners both time and costs as well as to enable pace-of-learning
flexibility. HAFFA remains committed to providing Members with the most cost-effective
delivery of professional training, enabling them to comply with HKCAD
and/or IATA requirements. The association’s HKCAD accreditation is recognition
of our continuing efforts to assist freight forwarders in remaining ahead of
the curve when it comes to the evolution of industry training requirements.
(4) Land Boundary Control Points Goods Vehicles Throughput
In
early 2022, due to increasing COVID-19 cases among the Hong Kong cross-border
truck drivers, the Shenzhen Government Port of Entry and Exit Office has, since
mid-February 2022, issued a series of tough measures on cross-border truck
operations, resulting in severe shortage of truck/land capacity. As cross-border trucking is the lifeblood of
Hong Kong’s airfreight industry, HAFFA kept voicing out Members’ concerns and
providing recommendations to the Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB) and the
Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR (中聯辦).
To
help mitigate the situation at that time, HAFFA approached the Customs to
request for the statistics of weekly cross-border truck movements by control
points. Previously, the said data were lagging behind and were only made
available 1 - 2 months later. Members, SME in particular, spent a lot of time
to “get insights” from others, but the information might not be accurate. We
are gratifying that the Customs took our advice and responded to the
Association positively. From June 2022 onwards, the Customs started to
provide the provisional figures of
land
boundary control points goods vehicles throughput of previous 4 weeks on its website. This is certainly a breakthrough! These
data are the light shining on the path, and Members can make better
predictions, formulate cargo operations plan (e.g. routing and transportation
means) and connect with service providers to meet the business needs in the
market.
(5)
Forged ever closer relationship
with GBA cities
We
also have a huge market on our doors step with the Greater Bay Area. President
Xi stressed that Hong Kong has a key role to play in the success of the GBA. Moreover, under the 14th Five-Year Plan, our pillar
sectors, especially as international aviation hub and maritime centre, will
help create new areas of development. The
revival of the Mainland’s economy will give a strong boost to Hong Kong as our
borders are fully opened and businesses are keen to grasp opportunities from
the Mainland’s “internal circulation” strategy. We are aware that both local
and foreign investors have also expressed strong interest in capitalizing on
the opportunities that the GBA presents. As such, invited by the Zhuhai Commerce Bureau (珠海商務局)
and Macau Air Freight Forwarding (Logistics) Association (MAFFA), we led a 17-member delegation to
Zhuhai and Macau on 29-30 March 2023. During the study tour,
the delegates visited places such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Logistics
Park (粵港澳物流園), Zhuhai Airport International
Intelligent Logistics Park (珠海空港國際智慧物流園) and Hezhou New Area (鶴洲新區)
etc. It served as a good platform to gain a better understanding on the latest
logistics development, relevant polices and customs facilitation measures.
Besides, a strategic partnership framework
agreement (MOU) between HAFFA and Zhuhai Transport Group (ZTG) was signed
during the delegation. ZTG, a wholly stated own group of companies, is
responsible for the building and operations of the transport infrastructure
including logistics parks in Zhuhai. The purpose of the MOU is to support
each other in developing related subject and cooperation will be carried out to
benefit HAFFA Members with special focus on better usage of the HK-Zhuhai-Macau
bridge and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Logistics Park (park information was
distributed to Members via HAFFA News dated 4 APR 2023), to enhance the
cargo development of the western Pearl River Delta and to accelerate the
development of modern logistics system in the GBA.
Trust our Members would maintain close
communications with their carriers and shippers, and keep themselves up-to-date
on the market situation through HAFFA News, news and business reports. The best way we can move forward is by
supporting one another in unity and sharing our insights so as to protect
businesses, protect jobs and help people put the pandemic behind us. It is now time for us to work together to
innovate, strive hard and stay united in our goal to grow our economy and
re-establish this great city as the world’s most competitive business and regional
logistics hub.
Last
but not least, HAFFA presented our views to the authorities and forged ever
closer relationships, in particular with TLB, CAD, AAHK, TDC, Customs, IATA,
FIATA and FAPAA. We hope to continue work together in UNITY preventing,
mitigating and resolving the issues will be key to maintaining trust – with
Government, shippers, carriers, CTOs and all stakeholders to make new
contributions to the sustained development of the international freight
forwarding industry in Hong Kong, in the Asia Pacific Region and indeed
throughout the world. I would like to
express my pride and appreciation for the strong support we have received from
you and every HAFFA Member, the most devoted HAFFA Committee Members, the
secretariat staff, our Government and industry partners.
Yours truly,
Gary Lau
Chairman
|
|
|
|
|
|