Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Sunday that developing high value-added services is the way forward for Hong Kong’s shipping industry.

Writing on his weekly blog, he noted people had questioned Hong Kong’s prospect as a maritime centre, as its container throughput has been slowly going down in the past decade.

Chan said the city’s port industry has been shifting to high value-added services, including ship finance, marine insurance, ship agency and management, as well as arbitration services.

He noted that some 900 local firms are providing diversified maritime services, and merchant fleets owned or managed by Hong Kong companies amount for a tenth of the world's capacity.

"The high value-added services provided by Hong Kong can connect the mainland and the rest of the world, and at the same time allow the SAR to serve the international markets while becoming better integrated with the nation's overall development," he said.

He noted that President Xi Jinping had expressed support for Hong Kong to strengthen its status as an international shipping hub, adding Hong Kong’s collaboration with other cities in the Greater Bay will also help facilitate the development of the region’s logistic industry.