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RIVERSIDE - 02/15/06 - Strategically "sited and suited," the Inland Empire is "ideally positioned to serve as a critical distribution hub for goods moving between Asia and points throughout the US, according to a senior-level Hong Kong official.

The region is "unique because of its proximity to two of the busiest container ports in the world, its world-class distribution facilities, air cargo facilities, and its transcontinental rail and highway connections," said Sandra Lee, Hong Kong's permanent secretary for economic development.

Lee - head of a Logistics Trade Mission visiting the Inland Empire recently at the behest of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council - made her comments during a recent seminar in Riverside organized by the Center for International Trade Development at Riverside Community College and the Distribution Management Association.

Over the past several decades, Hong Kong, said Lee, has evolved from being a manufacturing center to serving as a hub for trade services and, most importantly, the primary "revolving door" for two-way trade between China and the world, specifically the US - China's "most critical trading partner."

Hong Kong "is leading the way as Southeast Asia's most technologically-advanced trade service center," she said.

At the "very heart of its being" is the continuing development of a transportation infrastructure "well-suited to handling the surge in trade volume that we are forecasting over the next decade," she said, alluding to the "increasingly important" role the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region - a region that covers nine provinces, as well as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) - is playing in China's overall economic growth strategy.

The region, which also includes Hong Kong and nearby Macao, accounts for a full third of China's total Gross Domestic Product with low-cost manufacturing - once centered in Hong Kong - now the driving force of its combined provincial economies.  

Currently, almost 32% of the country's total exports and 22% of its total trade move through its ocean and air terminals.
 
Hong Kong International Airport is home to the world's largest air cargo terminal. Every week, some 70 air carriers generate 4,600 flights linking the SAR with 140 destinations around the world.

Last year, more than 3.1 million tons of time-sensitive cargo - from fresh fish and electronics to computer chips and precision instruments - moved through the airport, a record 7.5% growth surge over the tonnage total generated in 2004.

In addition, 27,500 cargo trucks cross the border between Hong Kong and mainland China every day, while rail links link the SAR with 60 major inland Chinese metropolitan markets.

Most importantly, the Pearl River Delta's ocean terminals handled 11 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units in 2004, a figure that's expected to surge to a staggering 40 million by 2020.

Every week, 74 ships sail from Hong Kong bound for US ports with a large number destined to call at either the Port of Los Angeles or the Port of Long Beach, both of which combined in 2004 to handle more than a third of all Asian - primarily Chinese-sourced - exports bound for US markets.

"The potential to cooperate on building an efficient, multi-modal supply chain between the Inland Empire and Hong Kong is virtually limitless," said Lee. "The keys are vision, location, and a willingness to adapt to ever-changing market trends. We possess all this and more and the opportunities for mutual growth are very exciting." 

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