The government’s vision to facilitate marine insurance industry development is a right step to take.

opportunities to marine insurance companies. From the perspective of Hong Kong, if the government can ink more biparty or multi-party free trade agreements with the aforementioned countries and regions, it would certainly facilitate stronger cooperation between Hong Kong and those places.

Currently, offshore reinsurance and self-insurance companies are required to pay just half the 16.5 percent standard profits tax rate for the first HK$2 million of profits, thanks to newly announced measures to provide tax relief to small and medium-sized enterprises. However, it is not sufficiently attractive to operators in the marine insurance industry relative to tax incentives offered by competitors in the region. For example, in Singapore, a 10 percent special profits tax rate is applied to hull, machinery insurance and P&I insurance.

Thus it is necessary for the Hong Kong government to conduct relevant studies and introduce further tax incentives to attract more marine insurers, reinsurers, P&I clubs and insurance agents to set up or expand operations in Hong Kong.

Moreover, an industry’s sustainable development is founded on a stable supply of talent. It is particularly true for a highly specialized industry such as marine insurance. However, currently local universities offer no training courses on marine insurance.

Hence, the government needs to work with maritime industry players such as the Hong Kong Shipowners Association and Hong Kong Federation of Insurers to seek cooperation opportunities with local educational institutions and mainland maritime schools to provide related courses.

The government should also implement a long-term plan to promote the maritime industry among local young people and attract maritime insurance talents from all over the country and overseas to work in Hong Kong.