ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

By forming a new subsidiary to manage its ferry business, Penang Port can make strategic moves at turning around the unit, says its managing director

The Economic Planning Unit (EPU) has given the much-awaited nod to terminal operator Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) to separate its loss-making ferry operations from its core port business, and make it a subsidiary of the company.

The move by the EPU, a body established under the Prime Minister’s Department, is part of a major restructuring plan aimed at facilitating the port operating unit’s listing on Bursa Malaysia.

PPSB managing director Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar said the separation of the two businesses, which is likely to take place this year, will create distinct identities for PPSB’s ferry and port operations.

“This restructuring exercise is expected to be endorsed by PPSB’s board when it meets on October 9 and we are looking at positioning the ferry operations as a public transport provider like Rapid Penang and the light rail transit service,” he told a press conference in Penang yesterday.

Present was PPSB’s newly-appointed chief operating officer Azlan Hamid.

Ahmad said by forming a new subsidiary to manage its ferry business, PPSB can make strategic moves at turning around this unit.

“One way to fill our fleet of eight ferries up and ensure that they run optimally is to team up with Rapid Penang.

“We plan to load their buses on our ferries – which currently operate at only 25 per cent capacity – and allow passengers to travel on a single ticket,” he added.

He said discussions on the fare structure for this proposed merging of services between PPSB and Rapid Penang will be held with Rapid Penang’s chief executive officer Azhar Ahmad soon.

The ferry service, which links Penang island to the mainland, has been a stumbling block to the port opera-ting company’s initial public offering.

Last year, ferry losses stood at RM24.6 million, a 71 per cent increase over RM14.4 million in 2007.

“The massive losses last year were due to fuel cost. We are looking at losses of RM14 million this year,” Ahmad said.

In July this year, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadziah was reported as saying that state infrastructure company Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd had been given the mandate by the Finance Ministry to carry out a study on the viability of taking over the ferry service from PPSB.

The public ferry service was absorbed into PPSB as part of its corporatisation deal with the Penang Port Commission in January 1994. Some 6,500 passengers and 3,000 vehicles use the service daily. Passengers pay RM1.20 each, while the fare for a car is RM7.70.

Meanwhile, Ahmad said Penang Port’s container throughput for 2009 is expected to match the 2008 volume of 929,639 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units).

By Marina Emmanuel

The growth of cargo in Malaysian ports for the first six month this year is a very encouraging sign for the port businesses. If the growth continues for the next six month then Malaysian ports would have a very good year and investors would be lining up to snap-up port shares whenever they are available on the market. It is good to see various port shares trading on the KLSE moving upwards and hopefully will be better by the year end.

Ports infrastructures also had remarkable growth – the opening of the Sepangar Bay Container Port, Kota Kinabalu on 1st June 2007, marked a very important step in the development of ports in East Malaysia and particularly in Sabah. After a long break ports in Sabah are beginning to throb again, congratulations to Sabah Ports Sendirian Berhad. When I took a brief visit to the Terminal on 27th June 2007, I saw the container yard was full of containers and I think SPSB may need to reclaim more land for bigger yards!

The deepening of the North Channel in Port Kelang to enable  larger container ships to  enter and exit is another exciting development and hope will be completed soon. In Penang we have the development of the Swettenham Pier, on the Penang Island, into a cruise and leisure terminal intending for the cruise industries which is a booming industry in the Strait of Malacca. Of course, there are also ongoing development activities in PTP, Bintulu and private ports in Peninsular Malaysia.

Port physical growth is encouraging for the future of our economic well being, but we shall not forget  another equally important area that  needs growth – the port human resouces. As major ports in Malaysia grow ahead and  port regulators are  also expanding in order to cope with new areas of responsibilities, personnel with experience and know-how are slowly leaving the ports and pensioning off from port regulators. New personnel are recruited to replace those that left.  The arrival of new personnel which is fresh from universities and colleges and without the in-depth knowledge and experience of those that left have begun to create a vacuum in the ports. Many port regulators are  faced with this dilemma and urgent training of these young and fresh intakes are required in order to get trained and knowledgeable personnel. APA Malaysia had identified many courses that will be held and suitable trainers are being identified and methodologies discussed. I certainly hope that more young officers could be trained jointly by APA Malaysia instead of individually by one port . This is where APA Malaysia could be very useful in conducting joint training for all.

New and interesting ideas are being pushed – such as the Trans-Peninsular Pipeline project from Pulau Bunting, Yan, Kedah to Bachok, Kelantan to transfer oil from Strait of Malacca to South Chine Sea without passing the Straits of Malacca and Singapore – the world’s most congested international waterways. Whether this will materialised and be a reality, time will tell. If it become a reality, then Malaysia will have two additional ports to manage. It will be very challenging for young port officers who will be entrusted to run and manage new ports of the future. What we have to do now is train as many as possible to enable them to take the challenge and manage future ports in Malaysia and the world!

Regards,

Abdul Rahim bin Akob

President,

APA Malaysia.

Malaysia’s First Inner City Marina

The Malaysia Tourism Policy Study, 1992 noted that providing suitable facilities such as those available in Penang, Langkawi, Tioman and Pangkor helps in making longer stays in coastal areas and islands more attractive. The island of Penang, well known as the ‘pearl of the orient’ and is a well-received tourist destination with rich diversity of history, social mix, politics, economy as well as healthy environment and a vibrant daily way of life.

From the City’s earliest days, Georgetown waterfront in Penang Island has been an important centre of commerce, transport and social interaction. While much has changed along the waterfront over the past century, the value and basic needs that made this coastal area essential to the community remains. It is also seems self-evident that Georgetown waterfront has and will continue to change, responding to meet new social and economic conditions as they arise. Uses and activities along the waterfront to provide a diversity of opportunities and choices regarding recreation, tourism commercial and other water-dependent and upland reliant activities was identified.

Penang Port envisaged that the redevelopment of Georgetown’s waterfront will enhance Penang as a tourist destination and serve as a catalyst for revitalizing the inner city of Georgetown. It has proposed two projects to the Government namely ‘The Redevelopment of Swettenham Pier’ and ‘The Development of Public Marina’. This development will be a feature attraction and complimentary to the overall waterfront redevelopment to increase tourist arrivals to Penang by sea. The intended waterfront development shall be in harmony with the unique nature of Georgetown’s background of rich heritage as well as a shopping and leisure destination. Georgetown with its Ancillary and Service Buildings historic background which dated back to 19th century will be a nostalgic brand. Thus the proposed development will draw similarities to such existing waterfront development in the world.

Penang is viewed by many to be a suitable location for a marina that will anchor itself as the flag ship for all marinas along the west coast of peninsula Malaysia. Loacated in the midst of historic Georgetown, integrated with its other well known attractions, it will compliment other recreational marine detinations in the region such as Phuket, Thailand and Singapore.

The proposed marina facility is also part of a larger national program for stimulating marine recreational activities for Malaysians and regional and international yachters, where there are many marinas at various stages of development along the coastal towns and cities of both peninsula and east Malaysia.

Visualised as a world-class marina with world-class facilities, the objective of this project is to be the first port of call for boats coming in from the Indian Ocean and also to be developed as a hub for super yachts. It also will complement Langkawi and neighbouring islands. It is located at the Church Street Pier with maximum capacity of 102 boats or yachts ranging between 10 to 40 metres. The RM 44 million marina which commissioned in mid October 2005 had been chosen as one of the main stop-over for the 16th Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta held on 21st till 24th November 2005.

The whole development is aimed at improving the public realm. The main building components are:-

* The marina building
* The refurbished pier
* Pier edge restaurants
* Ancillary and Service Buildings

The development of Tanjung City Marina WIII nave great aavantage in boosting Penang Island’s image as a tourist city. The tourism industry will receive the bulk of the development and the nation will benefit in terms of the increase of visitors from the world over. Apart from being a revenue earner it will also generate spin-offs business to develop. There is no doubt that the country’s coastal areas have tremendous potential for the tourism industry. Translating these potentials into real life will benefit the county in terms of economic, social and environmental points of view.

By: Penang Port Commission and Penang Port Sdn. Bhd.