Abolishment of cabotage policy an appropriate thing to do — Awg Tengah

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KUCHING: Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, Trade and Investment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan says the abolishment of cabotage policy is an appropriate thing to do now.

This is because Sarawak has developed its own ports and increased the industries that can produce sufficient goods for export, he added.

“Our export productions are already increasing. We have got industries that are producing wood-based products as well as those energy-intensive industries operating at the Sarawak Corridor of Renewal Energy (SCORE) in operation now.

“Our industries in the plantation sector are also producing products for export and therefore, I’m so proud because this issue had become our Chief Minister’s priority,” he told reporters after officiating at the closing of a business matching seminar at Imperial Hotel here yesterday.

Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment, was asked to comment on Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg’s proposal to abolish the cabotage policy.

He concurred with the chief minister, saying that the abolition of the cabotage policy would facilitate local entrepreneurs and the communities in Sarawak in obtaining goods directly from overseas without having to go through Port Klang.

He said the abolishment would also enable local producers to export their goods directly to the importing countries instead of going through Port Klang first.

“This, of course, will lead to the reduction of freight charges and prices of goods as there is no more double taxation,” he said.

Awang Tengah also said shipping companies would not need to worry about not carrying anything back from Sarawak because the volume of goods for exports in Sarawak would keep increasing.

He noted that today, Sarawak is the largest exporter of plywood and there are many other wood-based products as well as electronic components produced mainly for export.

The cabotage policy was imposed by the federal government in 1980 as a bid to integrate all Malaysian maritime laws under the Ministry of Transport.

However, the policy is alleged to have ‘discriminated and disfranchised’ Sabah and Sarawak for years.