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The New York of Asia: Port in a
storm
By Henry C K Liu
A
proposal for a 15 billion yuan (US$1.83 billion) linking
Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland Chinese city of
Zhuhai, which neighbors Macau, has sparked bickering
among Hong Kong tycoons over their special interests.
The container-terminal industry, speaking
through the powerful Hutchison Whampoa Group, opposes
moves that may affect the current governmental
arrangement of privately developed container terminals.
The Hong Kong Container Terminal Operators' Association,
which represents private terminal operators, including
Wharf's Modern Terminals, CSX World Terminals and
Hutchison Whampoa's Hongkong International Terminals,
while claiming not to be against the bridge project, was
quoted by the press as being opposed to "proposals that
changed the government's port development policy so as
to create an unfair situation for the existing players".
The proposed bridge would be a regional
infrastructure that would be key in integrating Hong
Kong and the Pearl River Delta into one vibrant regional
economy. In that sense, would be vital to the economic
survival of Hong Kong and beneficial to Guangdong
province and China in general. As some 98 percent of the
proposed 28-kilometer bridge would be built in Guangdong
waters and the dominant economic basis for the proposed
bridge would be the fast-growing Guangdong economy, it
would appear that the principle of eminent domain - the
right of a government entity to appropriate private
property at fair market value for the purpose of
constructing a public facility - would prevail.
In the event that the final arrangements of the
bridge project should change the Hong Kong government's
port-development policy, the current terminal operators
have a right to seek fair compensation if they can show
proof of being adversely affected unfairly. But the tail
would be wagging the dog if private interests at one
locality could oppose the development of a needed
regional infrastructure project merely to protect the
existing players whose high fees have been a major
factor in retarding Hong Kong's and the region's global
competitiveness.
Hong Kong tirelessly promotes
itself as the New York of Asia. In New York, the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, established in
1921, operates transportation facilities serving both
states. It is a financially self-supporting public
agency that receives no tax revenue from any state or
local jurisdiction and has no power to tax. It relies
almost entirely on revenue generated by its facilities'
users - tolls, fees, and rents - to finance revenue
bonds.
The governor of each state appoints six
members to the Port Authority's board of commissioners,
subject to state senate approval. Board members serve as
public officials without pay for overlapping six-year
terms. The governors retain the right to veto the
actions of commissioners from that governor's own state.
Board meetings are public. The board of commissioners
appoints an executive director to carry out the agency's
policies and manage day-to-day operations.
The
Port Authority's creation was the result of an accident
of political history that divided a common port area
between what became New York and New Jersey, a division
that inevitably resulted in disputes between the two
states over use of the port. The states quarreled
throughout the 19th century over their common harbor and
waterways. A dispute over the boundary line through the
harbor and the Hudson River, finally settled by the
Treaty of 1834, once led state police to exchange shots
in the middle of the river.
Eventually, the
states found a governmental model for port management in
the Port of London, which was then the only public port
authority in the world. On April 30, 1921, the Port of
New York Authority was established as the first of its
kind in the Western Hemisphere and the first interstate
agency created under a clause of the US Constitution
permitting compacts between states. One area of
jurisdiction was called the "Port District", a bi-state
region of about 1,500 square miles (3,900 square
kilometers) centered on the Statue of Liberty. The name
was changed to the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey in 1972 to identify more accurately its status as
a bi-state agency.
The Port Authority struggled
financially until 1930, when the states gave the agency
control of the newly opened Holland Tunnel. The
authority began blazing new paths in transportation,
engineering, law and administration. Bridges and tunnels
were constructed in the late 1920s and into the 1930s;
three airports were leased in the late 1940s. In the
1950s and 1960s came the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a
second deck on the George Washington Bridge, the world's
first container ports at Port Newark and Elizabeth, and
acquisition of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, which
became the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH)
rapid-transit system.
In the 1970s and 1980s,
the Port Authority helped advance the region's interests
through port and trade promotion and construction of the
World Trade Center. Other achievements included
development of industrial parks, a business park and a
satellite communications center on Staten Island.
Crossings at the agency's tunnels and bridges
increased to 123.6 million vehicles in 1999. Air
passengers totaled 89.3 million, and the value of
international trade through ocean and air-cargo
facilities came to $181.8 billion.
To
accommodate regional growth - and to plan for its
continuance - the Port Authority's capital plan in 1999
amounted to $992 million in regional infrastructure.
Some of the larger projects include the AirTrain light
rail system to and throughout John F Kennedy
International Airport, massive road and parking
improvements at Newark International Airport, as well as
the beginning of construction to connect the airport to
the Northeast Rail corridor; and the renovation of PATH
stations and a resource recovery facility in Newark. It
was the owner of the now-destroyed World Trade Center
towers, under long-term lease to a private developer.
It seems natural that the governor of Guangdong
province and the chief executive of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region should put their heads
together and create a "Port Authority of Guangdong and
Hong Kong" to plan, finance and operate the proposed
Zhuhai-Macau-Hong Kong bridge as expediently as possible
and to undertake other regional plans and coordination,
such as a regional air-traffic and airports plan and a
regional water-transportation, rail and highway plan.
Such an important regional project should not be
left to the bickering of local special interests. There
is no need to rely on the private sector to develop and
finance public infrastructure. Privatization of public
monopolies would only permit unnecessary private profit
to keep users fees high and sap the region's
cost-competitiveness.
Henry C K Liu is
chairman of the New York-based Liu Investment Group
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
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