Mohd Sidik began by addressing major Malaysian ports’ growth over the last few years, focusing on Port Klang, Penang Port, Johor Port and PTP. He stated that with increasing globalisation and trade growth, shipping lines have responded by consolidating and expanding. Major would ports still wanting to be considered attractive to these lines have had to respond with increased productivity, higher computerization and automation and customized facilities catering to specific customer needs. Mohd Sidik added that this led the Malaysian government and port sector to address the need for Malaysia to create a vibrant local port sector. Mohd Sidik said: “Prior to the 1990s, Malaysian exporters were still feedering their goods through other regional ports which offered direct services. The downside was that this cargo leakage hampered Malaysian exports by increasing their costs and decreasing their competitiveness. For Malaysia to consider itself a developed nation, trade was vital and with that came the need to offer investors and local manufacturers direct services at local ports.”

 

Mohd Sidik explained further that: “It is the Malaysian government that drove the need for vibrant sector. The initiatives to promote Port Klang as the national load centre in the 1990s and also the development of Westport were events that first changed the tide. With excellent facilities, Port Klang was able to attract main lines and it experienced excellent growth handling over 3 million TEU last year.”

 

Despite adequate port facilities in Malaysia, Mohd Sidik added that the need for a new port at Tanjung Pelepas addressed the future need for deep waters and unlimited expansion possibilities. He said: “PTP was designed to cater to the largest of container vessels and with the rate vessel sizes are increasing, Malaysia will always be able to be attractive towards these lines.”

 

On other initiatives, Mohd Sidik said: “The liberalization of the haulage sector, the proposed formation of the National Port Authority and the levy exemption from PTP to Singapore and vice versa were all essential to ensure that they are able to capture additional cargo.”

 

In concluding, Mohd Sidik touched on the possibility of PTP offering its expertise to other ports abroad through investments, and the possibility of consolidation with other key local ports. Mohd Sidik added: “By the year 2005, it sis very likely that we will have two Malaysian ports in the top 15 world container ports.”

 

The keynote address at the conference was given by Willioam Hall, president of Seaport Consultants Inc. Mr. Hall touched on the excellence in port management in terms of terminal operations concept and port planning, technological advancement, import equipment and information technology. Other speakers during the two-day conference included Peter FY Lee, deputy general manager of Nedlloyd Shanghai P&O, China, Mable Chan, vice president and senior analyst, Moody’s Asia Pacific, Kelvin Lee, director corporate finance and investment banking services, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and Mats Svensson, vice president of CargoNow.com.