The shipping industry is an important pillar of the economic development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and excellent maritime service is an urgent demand for its economic and social development
In the construction of this area, maritime authorities of the three places gave full play to the advantages of their leading and exploratory roles, They emancipated their minds, explored new things, deepened mutually beneficial cooperation and maintained the safety, smoothness, convenience and efficiency of water transport in the Greater Bay Area, and thus created a favorable business environment for its economic development of shipping industry.
Innovate Supervision Methods to Serve Efficient and Convenient Flow of Ships.
In mid-May this year, Shenzhen Maritime Safety Administration (Shenzhen MSA) received a letter of acknowledgement from Hong Kong Marine Department (HKMD): "The peak period of certificate application this year coincided with the outbreak of COVID-19. Thanks to your quick response of relevant leaders and teams to resolve the difficulties, the certificate could be issued smoothly and timely and ship operation could run as usual..."
The reporter noticed that the certificate mentioned before refers to the "Wreckage Guarantee Certificate" issued totally online to Hong Kong ships by Shenzhen MSA on behalf of HKMD. Since February 2017, the "Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, 2007" has officially entered into force in China, but not including Hong Kong. Under the authorization of the Ministry of Transport, Shenzhen MSA signed agreements and working procedures with HKMD to issue the certificate on behalf of the Hong Kong side. After repeated negotiations and efforts, Shenzhen MSA has opened up a paperless online processing channel for the whole process. At present, it is reported that 2,191 certificates have been issued, with a total of 4,382 certificates produced.
Similarly, in early February this year, in order to ensure the smooth and orderly cargo water transport between Shenzhen and Hong Kong during the epidemic period, Shenzhen MSA reached an agreement with the Hong Kong side to appropriately postpone the application of relevant certificates for ships, crews and shipping companies from Shenzhen to Hong Kong, so that ships can smoothly go through the import and export procedures in Hong Kong waters without the need for annual examination, audit or renewal of relevant certificates.
Shipping industry is a fundamental, leading and service industry for the economic and social development of the Greater Bay Area. It is also an important foundation to support the stable and rapid economic development of this area as well as to enhance its international competitiveness. More than 90% of foreign trade cargo, 95% of coal and 99% of crude oil and iron ore here are transported via shipping.
Nowadays, the Pearl River Estuary has established the busiest high-speed passenger ship network in the world. Hong Kong has been the largest cruise hub port in China. Guangzhou Nansha and Shenzhen Qianhai are also speeding up the construction of cruise home ports. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Free Yacht Sailing and land-based tour will be the development directions trend for the upgrading of leisure and entertainment industry in the Greater Bay Area.
Ship is an important shipping element. Over the years, the maritime and navigation guarantee departments of the three places have further promoted the efficient and convenient flow of shipping elements in the Greater Bay Area by optimizing and innovating the safety management of ships.
Guangdong MSA has implemented new mechanisms such as joint boarding inspection and "no waiting for honest ships to clear customs". Guangzhou MSA, complying with the situation of the Greater Bay Area, has actively participated in the development of "mutual exchange of information, recognition of supervision and assistance in law enforcement" customs clearance, explored the list of "parallel processing" and "green channel", and established and improved a unified electronic information system for joint boarding inspection of ships on international voyages.
On October 8, 2019, according to the deployment of MSA of the Ministry of Transport, Shenzhen MSA also completed the "Study on Maritime Traffic Facilitation Policies of Shenzhen and Hong Kong under the Framework of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", an in-depth analysis of the differences in maritime management policies between the two places, aiming to apply the facilitation supervision mode of "one declaration and one inspection" to ships in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and even within the Greater Bay Area, and put forward specific development strategies and policy recommendations to promote the maritime traffic facilitation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
The Navigation Guarantee Center of South China Sea has also given full play to the advantages of system and mechanism, increased the construction of navigation aids, expanded the coverage of measurement, and improved the communication information broadcasting frequency, thus realizing quality and efficiency improvement of the three major businesses. For example, it has upgraded and perfected the AIS (Automatic Identification System) and promoted the construction of AIS base stations to provide timely data service for the safe navigation of ships. It has also carried out the compilation of the "Navigation Atlas of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area" to provide reference for the construction of the Greater Bay Area.
Play a Leading Role to Create a Favorable Port Environment.
"It's so convenient!" the head of a shipping agency said, after completing the maritime management procedures for Hong Kong and Macao ships entering and leaving the port through the Guangzhou Nansha international trade "single window".
Maritime management is an important factor in port business environment. In recent years, with active cooperation with relevant departments, Guangdong maritime authorities have solidly carried out the platform design, information docking, mutual recognition and other work of international trade "single window" construction with Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone as the main pilot, and launched "ship entry approval" and "procedures of ship entering/leaving the port" services on Guangzhou international trade "single window" platform, which have been widely praised by enterprises.
"The time required for cargo and ships to enter and leave the port has been reduced from 20 minutes to less than 2 minutes, benefiting more than 8,000 International ships every year. More than 2,300 enterprises of various types have conducted business through the ‘single window’, with an application rate of over 90%, further enhancing the vitality of the shipping market. " the head of the Government Service Center of Guangzhou MSA said.
Establishing high-quality business environment, effectively gathering shipping industry chain and promoting regional synergistic development are what the Guangdong maritime authorities have achieved, however, it is more than what they have done.
Convenience measures include: realizing the online printing of the permit certificate of ship entering and leaving the port to truly achieve "no physical action" of the port clearance; promoting the implementation of the "one-time pass" system of ship certificate documents to comprehensively promote the "one-stop processing" of maritime business; adjusting and decentralizing the jurisdiction of crews' examinations and certificates issuance to help Hong Kong and Macao crews conveniently replace the mainland crews’ competency certificates; printing and issuing the "Implementation Guide for the Examination and Approval of Special Navigation Aids Setting of Guangdong MSA" to provide the basis for the fine management of the examination and approval of special navigation aids setting.
They have also reached a consensus with the Hong Kong side on the promotion and application of electronic certificates for ships sailing in Hong Kong and Macao. Both sides intended to set up a special working group for it, and have carried out a study on the feasibility of the "single window" customs clearance mode for Guangdong and Hong Kong.
For Macao, last year, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its return to China, at the new Hengqin Port which connects the mainland and Macao, passenger inspection has been changed from the previous mode of "two-time inspections in two places" to the full implementation of "cooperative inspection and one-time clearance", greatly facilitating the convenient flow of production factors such as personnel and goods, and supporting the better integration of Macao into national development.
In order to promote the work of international ship registration pilot in Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone, the maritime authorities, drawing on the advanced experience of other domestic provinces and cities, have actively strove for policy support and promote convenient service measures.
On March 16, 2017, MSA of the Ministry of Transport approved "Guangdong Nansha", "Guangdong Hengqin" and "China Qianhai" as ports of registry for international ship registration in Pilot Free Trade Zone. Within the Greater Bay Area, there are currently three ports of registry for international ships, namely, Guangdong Nansha, Guangdong Hengqin and China Qianhai, which have simplified the ship registration process and further relaxed the restriction on the proportion of foreign capital for coming international ships, effectively boosting the development of the shipping service industry chain in Nansha Free Trade Zone.
In addition, on June 17, 2019, "the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Maritime Labor Service Innovation Workstation" was inaugurated in Dongguan, which plays an exemplary and leading role in optimizing the crew's occupational environment; it promotes the establishment of a integrity system in crew market and optimizes the crew's occupational environment; it also contributes to the integration of jurisdictional crew market with the international standards, so as to realize the rapid application for the mainland crew certificates by Hong Kong and Macao crews.
Optimize Service to Inject Impetus into New Industry Formats.
Since June, the sea trial of a kind of unmanned ship by Zhuhai Yunzhou Intelligent Technology Ltd. has been carried out at Zhuhai Wanshan Marine Unmanned Ship Test Site.
To meet the needs of industry development, Zhuhai MSA actively supports the construction of the world's largest and Asia's first marine unmanned ship test site, and assists the development of new industry formats such as unmanned ships. For this purpose, it has explored and formulated measures to supervise unmanned ships, guided unmanned ship companies to improve their ship testing programs and safety emergency plans, and supervised the marine unmanned ship test sites.
The reporter noticed that for the new industry formats such as intelligent ship, unmanned ship, yacht and cruise shipping financial industry, Guangdong maritime authorities, actively exerting their maritime professional advantages, make efforts to optimize maritime service and promote navigation safety, so as to inject impetus into new industry formats.
Zhongshan-Macao Free Yacht Sailing was officially inaugurated on November 23, 2016, which was a key step to promote the "Guangdong-Macao Free Yacht Sailing". On July 24, 2017, maiden voyage of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Free Yacht Sailing in China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially held in Nansha, Guangzhou.
"Although there are not many yachts sailing under the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Free Yacht Sailing policy, the policy is being further promoted," Li Huawen, deputy director of the Regulation and Standards Department of Guangdong MSA , said.
According to the report, previously commissioned by the Guangdong Province Free Trade Office, Guangdong MSA took the lead in drafting the "Implementation Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Free Yacht Sailing in China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone". This plan was jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Security, the General Administration of Customs and the General Administration of Quality Supervision on June 20, 2017. At present, Guangdong MSA and Macao Marine and Water Bureau have jointly worked out the relevant implementation details and agreed on the content of the text.
From the perspective of the future development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong will still be an international financial, trade and shipping center of the Asia-Pacific region, while Macao will be a world leisure and tourism center, mainly undertaking the function of tourism passenger transport and promoting the development of cruise, yacht and other new industry formats, Li said.
Zhuhai Hengqin and Macao are separated by a river. Last year, Macao's hotels received nearly 14 million guests, with an average hotel occupancy rate of more than 90%, and their reception capacity was almost saturated. One third of the visitors to Macao would choose "one journey with many stops" to extend their travel destinations, including Zhuhai and Hengqin tourist island. The mainland maritime authorities are actively cooperating with Macao authorities to further enhance the synergistic development of tourism in the two places, and jointly build Macao as a world-class tourism and leisure center.
In order to promote the development of water transport and tourism industry, Guangdong MSA has also actively served the development of cruise and other emerging water transport industries.
On November 17, 2019, with the first berth of "Costa neoRomantica" in Nansha, Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise Home Port, the largest cruise home port complex in China, started operation. Located at the geographical center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, this international cruise home port has a planned shoreline of 1600 meters, which can dock the largest cruise in the world at present, with an annual design capacity of 750,000 passengers.
In order to better participate in the construction of international cruise home port, Guangdong MSA has specially set up a study group for cruise and yacht management and service, to ensure the safety of cruise entering and leaving the port, and to vigorously promote the development of cruise industry in the Pilot Free Trade Zone.