Traditionally, it said the request for port clearances of vessels entering and leaving the port had been made manually through submissions to four main government agencies — the Royal Customs & Excise Department, the Marine Department, the Health Department and the Immigration Department.

 

Shipping agents too have had to submit four different sets of documentation to these government agencies before getting the Port Clearance Certificate.
PTP said the successful implementation of the VCS this month had made PTP the first port in Malaysia to have an electronic and paperless system for vessel port clearance.

 

Chief executive officer of PTP, Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said, “the electronic VCS is part of the port’s effort in providing efficient services in handling and also clearance”.
He said the implementation of system would ensure better utilisation of resources by shipping agents thus reducing redundancy.

 

These innovations are in line with the aspiration to establish PTP as a leading transhipment hub in the region, he added.

 

Meanwhile, the VCS which costs about RM400,000, was developed by Software Design & Consultancy Sdn Bhd, an application vendor under close supervision of PTP.

 

VCS is interfaced at system level to MAPASS, a system used by the Marine Department for vessel declaration and into the PTP Marine system, which controls vessel traffic entering and exiting the port. — Bernama