Paradigm Shifts in Shipping Registry Policy Led to Revitalization — Hong Kong Case *

There are needs for ship registers to become business oriented but maintain the quality of fleet. To meet these two objectives, Hong Kong Shipping Register (HKSR) was re-engineered in 1999. An autonomous HKSR was established before the handover of the sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997. When the newly established HKSR began operation, it fell to merely 5.5 million tons in late 1997. In May 2009, the registered tonnage was 41 million tons and the HKSR achieved significant growth of 7.5 times of that in 1997. The study through interviews analyses the paradigm shifts in the shipping registry policy in Hong Kong which led to a successful revitalization of the registered tonnage. External factors of the shipping community and internal factors of the administration in Hong Kong became major drives of the revitalization of the HKSR. The paradigm shifts include a new page of dialogue in formulation of policy of shipping registry with the stakeholders, structural change of quality and survey mechanism in HKSR, restructure of the consultative platforms in connection to enhancement of customer satisfaction, involvement of diplomatic assistance from Beijing and indepth re-engineering of the bureaucratic system in the shipping registry in Hong Kong.