Mohd Faizal says the Sabah government should rethink its approach to port development and maritime connectivity by first identifying industries capable of generating cargo, and then determining the shipping services and infrastructure needed to support them. – Bernama
KOTA KINABALU (Sept 10): Sabah should build industries that create cargo demand rather than chase vessel calls, said Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Sabah deputy chairman Mohd Faizal Malik.
He said the state government should rethink its approach to port development and maritime connectivity by first identifying industries capable of generating cargo, and then determining the shipping services and infrastructure needed to support them.
“Cargo creates vessels. Industries create cargo,” he said, stressing that port development should be closely linked to Sabah’s industrialisation strategy.
Mohd Faizal said Sabah has significant potential in sectors such as downstream palm oil processing, biomass and renewable energy, food and agro-processing, fisheries and cold-chain logistics, halal manufacturing and energy-related industries.
“These industries do not merely occupy industrial land. They create imports, exports, storage, trucking, warehousing, handling and marine services, which in turn generate demand for vessel calls,” he said.
He said this approach was particularly important for industrial hubs such as Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) Lahad Datu, where the port and industrial park should be developed as an integrated commercial ecosystem.
Investors, he said, should be offered more than industrial land.
The investment proposition should include reliable access to raw materials, processing facilities, storage, logistics, port services and export markets.
“An investor will ask whether raw materials can be brought in reliably and whether finished products can be exported competitively. That is where the real value of an industrial port lies.”
Mohd Faizal said ports increasingly compete as part of wider supply chains rather than simply against other ports.
“Sabah’s competitiveness should therefore be viewed through a combination of land, utilities, labour, industrial capabilities, logistics, port infrastructure, shipping connectivity and access to markets,” he said.
He proposed that Sabah develop a statewide cargo development strategy to identify potential cargo sources and determine the infrastructure and shipping requirements needed to support them.
“Such a strategy should map industries, cargo volumes, origins and destinations, seasonality, transport modes, vessel types, ports, infrastructure requirements and potential revenue.”
For POIC Lahad Datu, he said this could include assessing the cargo potential of the eastern Sabah industrial corridor and its links with markets in the BIMP-EAGA region.
“Instead of waiting for shipping lines to tell us what cargo they have, we should work backwards from industrial investment opportunities and identify the cargo that we can create,” he said.
Mohd Faizal also called for closer coordination among government agencies, port operators, industrial park developers, investors, manufacturers, logistics companies and shipping lines.
“Port planning must become part of industrial policy. Industrial policy must consider logistics, and logistics policy must consider maritime connectivity. These three elements cannot be developed separately,” he said.
The ultimate goal, he added, should be to transform Sabah’s ports from infrastructure assets into economic platforms that connect industries to regional and international markets.
“Rather than measuring our ambition by how many vessels we can attract, we should measure it by how much economic activity we can create that makes those vessels want to come,” he said.