Sabah Logistics Council needed | Daily Express Online

Sabah Logistics Council needed

Published on: Saturday, February 08, 2020

By: Nikko Fabian

Kota Kinabalu: New infrastructure investment will help booster Sabah’s efforts to position itself as a logistics and trans-shipment hub for BIMP-EAGA and beyond as well as support further developments in industry, trade and tourism.This is the view of Chartered Institute of Logistics Malaysia President Ts. Ramli Amir (pic) who also said the expansion of Sapangar Bay Container Port (SBCP) would lead to wider economic development in the state.
“It is a key. Without it, it would seem that the economy is bound to grow very slowly,” he added.

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According to him the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP), sees the port project as one of the last pieces in the puzzle for establishing Sabah as an investment platform.
From it lies the potential to boost other supporting industries in both the manufacturing and the agricultural sector.
Ramli said the cost of doing business has been tagged as a great obstacle in improving the state of the economy and logistics and transportation cost rank high.
He said details on the element that comprises the high cost from all the important locations and what its impact has to be studied in depth so that we can focus on the right solution.
He believed impact on prices of goods and eventual properties as a result of the high cost has to be established.
This may well see the need for a Freight Equalisation Scheme or similar formula to subsidise shipping cost be pursued, he said adding that after all the National Transport Plan did talk about a “Shared Prosperity vision”.
Ramli said this is the most opportune time to have this realised as we embark upon the spirit of being in one nation.
“Landed property rates and together with ‘investment incentives’ especially at the Industrial Parks has to be attractive enough to lure investors. We cannot be shy in looking at the landed property markets at our neighbouring state as it may well serve as the answer to why we do not attract as many investors as we would like to have especially in creating a much needed manufacturing sector and the improvement to the agricultural sector.

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“We need to once and for all determine if it the National Cabotage Policy if its impact on Sabah’s shipping would really boost maritime activities in the state’s ports and improve logistics efficiencies as against ‘Open Shipping’ policy relying on the economics of shipping operation. Would an open policy be the answer to Sabah’s need to attract shipping trade?”
The President said if the NCP is not good for Sabah’s shipping and trade, an Open Free Shipping policy may not guarantee ships will come to Sabah either, as it all hinges on the economics of shipping operation.
Thus, he said Sabah’s shipping needs and success lies in the establishment of SBCP as a National Load Centre (NLC) by creating  a dual gateway policy, with Port Klang covering the western hemisphere and Sabah covering the east.
As a transshipment hub, Ramli stressed that it is to serve as a catalyst to fuel the industrial growth needed to boost Sabah to further develop its supporting industries and capability.
Would this be considered as a ‘shared prosperity vision’ that the National Transport Plan was talking about? he post the question.
Sabah’s terrain, Ramli said, is a factor to be considered in the cost effectiveness formula in providing state wide land transportation needs and the cross country operation wears heavily on fleet maintenance thus being reflected in the cost of the transportation of goods.
“Sabah is well endowed with seas surrounding it. We already have ready sea ports serving all the major districts. Yet we are not maximizing its use by not introducing our own cabotage policy of limiting it to local ship owners. Would a domestic Short Sea Shipping be a factor in improving our transportation services and cost performance?”
Beside cargo ports development, Ramli said there are real potential opportunities in the Cruise Industry. As the development of cruise terminal in the state is at its infancy, it is thus an opportune time to plan for one heck of an inclusive plan to best serve the potential of the tourism industry has to offer.
“We must go for the highest of standards to attract a wider market of an increasingly affluent society,” he stressed.
Likewise, he said the aviation industry is in parallel to the maritime’s cruise industry will have a huge potential for bigger influx of tourism.
For the freight industry an Air Freight Hub in the line of seaports National Load Centre be developed making way for Kota Kinabalu as a Freight Hub of the nation. Is this already in the state agenda?
The Pan Borneo Highway is one excellent example. Could a Mass Transit System or a Short Sea Shipping or an Equivalent of the Freight Equalisation Scheme be another? 
Who takes responsibility? I am clear about having a Sabah Logistics Council as the platform as the starting point for a systematic development of a Sabah State Transport Plan, Ramli added.