The Port

When I am not working on GE issues and giving workshops on teaching and learning, I try to sustain my research project on ports, supply chains, and inter-modal logistics/labor. Hong Kong, as the second largest port in the world (though probably not for long), is a natural place to study such things. I was able to get a private tour of Modern Terminals Ltd in Hong Kong. The port district in Hong Kong is about the size of Dames Point/Tra-Pac/Mitsui in Jaxport, times 100.

Hong Kong has benefited, historically, from serving as the "middleman" between China and the rest of the world. Southern China/The Pearl River Delta/Guangdong Province, where most everything we consume in the U.S. is produced, sits alongside of Hong Kong. But as China becomes blatantly capitalist, and starts developing its own ports and logistics sector, Hong Kong will have to develop some new niche strategies. The Chinese government, and Guangdong Province, has also mandated significant and regular increases in the minimum wage (it would be nice if we would do the same in the U.S.) which will raise labor costs and impact the future of labor intensive manufacturing in Southern China.

These developments will impact not just Hong Kong but the entire global economy.






Control room monitor tracking the movement of every shipping container