ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

ASEAN Strategic Transport Plan (ASTP) 2011 -2015, aka Brunei Action Plan (BAP) 2011-2015 is a successor to ASEAN Transport Action Plan (ATAP) which expired in 2010. “Brunei Action Plan” (BAP) was presented and adopted during the 16th ASEAN Transport Meeting in November 2010. It was discuss at the 21st Maritime Transport Working Group (MTWG), March 2011 at Kota Kinabalu for the first time.

BAP is one of the initiatives to provide reference in guiding ASEAN Transport Cooperation and integration in the next five years. It covers three main sectors land, air, and maritime transport, and transport facilitation.

BAP was formulated, prepared and submitted by Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) Study Team.

In the 21st ASEAN Maritime Transport Working Group Meeting (AMTWG), Malaysia was appointed as the lead country for MTG-2 MTA7 No.1 “FORMULATE TRAINING PROGRAM TO ENHANCE CAPABILITY OF PORT PERSONNEL BY 2012”.

With this appointment Malaysia has to come up with the best standardized training program that can be used by ASEAN ports as a guideline to their training program to enhance capability of port personnel.

In order to develop the program that suit the needs of, and compatible with the culture in ports of ASEAN, Malaysia, is seeking the cooperation of ASEAN member states, through the channel of the ASEAN Ports Association (APA) Malaysia, to provide feedback and share any useful information pertaining the existing reputable training program(s) for port personnel that the port has, or any information or documentation that the port feels necessary and significant to share among ASEAN member states.

Any information shared thought this survey page will be kept and used as reference by Malaysia for the purpose of project mentioned above. The developed training program then will be presented in the future ASEAN MTWG meeting; open for comments and will be adopted as official reference for ASEAN member states.

Thank you for your time in completing this survey. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and support.

It will institute measures to reinforce its authority as port regulator

PORT KLANG: Port Klang Authority (PKA) has come out with four proactive initiatives to further boost the efficiency and businesses at terminals and its supporting industry.

Its new general manager Kee Lian Yong said PKA would institute necessary measures to reinforce its authority as a port regulator and play a positive role in safeguarding the interest of all players in the industry. “First is the registration of all necessary logistics players in Port Klang to ensure efficiency and cooperation.

“We will also have to continue monitoring the performance of the ports closely to ensure compliance on the efficiency and performance at the ports are maintained and at par with international standards.

“Next, all direct port activities and ancillary services within the port limit should be licensed where PKA has taken steps to license and regulate private jetty operators.

“So far, PKA has approved 20 private jetty operations based on the merit that they will contribute and complement trade growth here.

“Finally, PKA is enforcing enhanced security and safety within the port limit and pilotage district where it has ugraded the Vessel Traffic Management System which now includes the Automatic Identification System in line with the International Maritime Organisation’s safety of life at sea convention,” he told reporters at a briefing on PKA’s strategies for growth and improved services yesterday.

Kee added that Port Klang was also equipped with scanners at both Northport and Westports together with megaport initiatives with the US Customs.

Kee said PKA would also set out a strategic port master plan which would map out the direction of Port Klang for short- and long-term planning for the next 10 to 20 years.

The current port master plan expires next year.

He said the prospect of strengthening Port Klang’s competitiveness could be via better cooperation between the two terminals.

“Whilst healthy competition is encouraged, I believe there’s room for enhanced cooperation between the two that will lead to better services for port users, optimisation of port capacity and mutual long-term benefit for the industry as well as the nation,” he said.

PKA is the trade facilitator, regulator and landlord of the terminals in Port Klang.

To further enhance the port’s efficiency, Kee said PKA’s effort to deepen and widen the south entrance to Port Klang was 60% to 70% completed.

The dredging project will see a deeper south entrance of 16.5m from 15.5m previously, and width of 500m from 365m previously.

“The RM100mil project is set to be completed by December,” he said.

In terms of container volume, Kee said the volume in the second quarter of this year showed significant improvement of 7.8% quarter-on-quarter, reflecting signs of recovery going foward.

“But, the container throughput declined by 15.4% in the first six months this year against the same period last year.

“Hence, Port Klang’s full year volume is expected to contract by 10% this year against 7.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units in 2008.

“From the positive indications, we hope to fare better next year,” he said.

Additional initiatives according to Kee would include gearing the industry for the implementation of reduction of free storage period for import and export containers at the terminals to three days effective Jan 1. The free storage time at present is five days.

Kee said PKA would also step in to resolve issues in the industry such as depot gate charges and feeder incentive scheme.

On Port Klang Free Zone, Kee said PKA would announce its business turnaround plan in two months after securing approval from relevant stakeholders.

Kee, who is an accountant by profession with about 25 years of experience in the corporate world, took the helm of PKA two months ago replacing former general manager Lim Thean Shiang.

By SHARIDAN M. ALI