While Singapore has enjoyed much success as a maritime hub, it cannot rest on its laurels, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a Facebook post yesterday.

While Singapore has a port in a strategic location, there are "ports in the region competing for business" and "new trade routes opening up", he added.

"The Tuas mega port will strengthen our international maritime hub. We must do all we can to keep the path ahead smooth sailing," said the PM.

He also shared a time-lapse video by Facebook user Jeffhk, which he described as "spectacular". Jeffhk, a seaman on a mega-container ship, took the 10-minute video over 30 days in a journey from the Red Sea across the Indian Ocean, through the Malacca Strait into Singapore, and then across the South China Sea before arriving in Hong Kong.

PM Lee said it was the closest he would get to his dream of sailing on a container ship. "The vastness of the ocean contrasts with the lights and activity in ports, especially PSA Singapore. It's one of the busiest ports in the world, but few of us ever get to see it in action."

The new Tuas port - twice the size of Ang Mo Kio town - will be opened progressively from 2021. When completed by 2040, it can handle up to 65 million twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo a year, more than double the 2016 volumes.

Fabian Koh