ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

SPEECH BY THE HONOURABLE
DATUK HAJI ABDUL RAHIM BIN BAKRI
DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, MALAYSIA
AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE
37TH ASEAN PORT ASSOCIATION MAIN COMMITTEE MEETING
22 NOVEMBER 2011 (TUESDAY)

A very good morning

First and foremost, I would like to thank the organizing committee, Kuantan Port Authority for inviting me to address a few words and to officiate the opening of the 37th ASEAN PORT ASSOCIATION MAIN COMMITTEE MEETING. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a very warm welcome or selamat datang to Malaysia.

The formation of the ASEAN PORT ASSOCIATION or APA goes a long way back to 1974 when it was just a six member association but now it has grown to nine. APA was conceived to provide a venue for port officials in the region to get together not only to share experiences but also to harmonizing broad based issues and finding solutions to problem areas so as to facilitate trade and practices among member countries.

APA has indeed come of age where the discourse is not only among member countries but as a grouping has held dialogues, cooperation and courses/seminar with other countries far and wide from the European Union as well as China and Japan.

The way businesses are conducted these days has evolved and changed with the advent not only of globalization but also the introduction of new technology. Indeed one has to keep up with these changes if not one will be left out in the fast changing world without borders. To stay competitive, trading nations have to look seriously at trade facilitation and how to make the whole process of trading simpler and smoother. In short this means how goods flow faster with minimal interruptions.

Ports being the gateways for the bulk of the world’s trade traffic are key players in trade facilitation. The rapid changes in the marketplace put pressure on ports to respond and indeed ports have to adapt to face these challenges. The role of port is not just confine to providing facilities and services but must match it with efficiency and productivity as well as IT driven. A well developed port infrastructure is thus a vital part of an efficient trading system and network.

The introduction of much larger vessels such as the super cape size and mega container ships has change the landscape of port development and management. To keep in tandem with these changes, the port has need to continuously to train their personnel. These are indeed challenging times which APA has to face.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The Government of Malaysia views the port as an important component of the country’s economic development and much effort has been devoted towards the development of the port industry. This effort can be seen in the growth of the two main ports of the country namely Port Klang and Port of Tanjung Pelepas which is now ranked among the top 20 container ports in the world.
However I would like to stress that the Government of Malaysia is not marginalising other ports. Indeed under the various sectoral economic development of Malaysia,

several projects has been identified in the East Coast region of Malaysia to transform and elevate the region to a higher income based economy. In this regards, Kuantan Port which is situated in the East Coast region will play a pivotal role to serve this region and plans are afoot to enhance the capability of Kuantan Port.

From a humble beginning in 1979, where Kuantan Port was managed and operated by the government through the Kuantan Port Authority, it has now been privatised to Kuantan Port Consortium Sdn Bhd on 1st January 1998. I am happy to note that there is close cooperation between the privates sector namely the port operator and the regulator i.e. Kuantan Port Authority to foster public-private partnership as envisage under the privatisation programme.
This type of partnership is not unique to Malaysia and I am sure that it is working equally well in other ASEAN countries. It is important that both the government and the private sector in ASEAN work in unison in keeping open the channels of cooperation in ports and it is through such meetings and other related forums that we learn from one another through the exchange of experiences and ideas as well as programmes carried out under the auspices of APA.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Looking at the agenda of the meeting there are serious matters to discuss but I hope that the delegates will take time off to explore Kuantan and its beautiful surroundings and to take home fond memories of Kuantan and also that of Malaysia.
I sincerely hope that this meeting will enhanced and foster better relationship between the members of ASEAN port countries. I wish you a productive and fruitful deliberation and successful outcome.

It gives me great pleasure to officially declare the 37th APA Main Committee Meeting open.
Thank You. Terima kasih.

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Datin Paduka O. C. Phang, General Manager, Klang Port Authority & APA Chairman 2004 – 2005

“It is a pleasure for me to attend our Asean Ports Association meetings, in particular, our annual Main Committee Meetings, like this one we are about to have over the next few days.

It is occasion where I get to meet again all my fellow APA colleagues and the opportunity to meet new friends. It is also an occasion to experience the generous and warm hospitality of our host country members and in this connection, on behalf of the Asean Ports Association, I thank the Government of Indonesia and the host of this 31st APA meeting, the Indonesian Port Corporation I, II, III and IV for the generous invitation, warm hospitality and invaluable assistance given to us to make our meeting and our visit a success.

To cite a brief history, in 1967 countries in the South East Asia region forged an economic and trade alliance the Association of South East Asian Nations or a ASEAN to advance their agenda for economic growth, social progress and cultural development. Since then, ASEAN has played a pivotal role in the international community and has put forward ASEAN’s.

Through these ongoing efforts, the ASEAN region, today, is the fastest growing in the world.

In terms of economic power, ASEAN comprises a market of over 500 million people and has an annual gorss production worth well over US$500 billion. Moving in the same direction, a parallel cooperation tie was formed to build a strong foundation for regional cooperation among the ports in the Asean region.

The Asean Ports Association, in short APA was conceived to provide a venue for port officials concerned to meet and share experiences that may lead to finding solutions to identified problem areas and emerging issues affecting the port sector. APA celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. On that occasion I mentioned the founders os APA and today we are very fortunate to have here with us this morning at our 31st Meeting a very distinguished member who was one of the brainchild for APA’s birth — Bapak Habibie from Indonesia.

We at APA with the latest membership from Myanmar, are now looking towards the inclusion of Laos in the Asean Ports Association. It is our fervent hope that Laos will join the Asean fraternity as an APA member which will complete the membership of all ASEAN countries in the Asean Ports Association. It will indeed be a progressive step forward together as ASEAN Ports within s single ASEAN community with one identity and one vision. We are aware that Laos os a land-locked country with no sea-frontage. But ports are not necessarily physical locations with a seafront. Dry ports and inland clearance depots making use of railway and road linkages coupled with air linkages feature prominently as multimodal operations in ports today to enable transportation of goods and services. We look forward indeed to Loas joining us in the near future.

Over the years ports roles have undergone dramatic changes. From just being an entry for goods into the country, ports have an economic role to play serving as a life line to a country.

As members of the Asean Ports Association we have broadened our horizons through regional cooperation to achieve the broad objectives originally envisioned for the Asean Ports Association. We now persue together our goals in tandem with the broader policies.

Outlined by ASEAN towards an integrated and competitive ASEAN economy. We are fortunate to have our membership comprising both the public and private sector ports and towards this end, the private sector ports have a strategic and crucial role to help us spearhead a regional competitive age in the global market in addition to being a competitive vehicle instrumental for our international export base and as a production centre responding rapidly to business opportunities and demands.

APA fosters amongst others things, networking and development of human resources. We have compiled a compendium on training needs available in ASEAN. This compendium is updated from time to time and we work with the APA permanent secretariat in Manila to look into means to see how we can maximize the usage of this information in the most effective manner in terms of human resource development in member Ports.

APA also convenes Human Resource Development Seminars, where relevant topics are presented by expert speakers in the field of Human Resourn Development.

APA is also implementing a Port Familiarization Program which constitutes a study tour of member countries which will be carried out in phases. The pilot project for this program will be initiated by Bintulu Port of Malaysia which specializes in the handling of Palm Oil, LPG and LNG. APA hopes that with this we will move toward together, learning from each other, supporting one another towards achieving the goals and objectives of the Asean Ports Association, our individual countries and our organizations.

Asean Ports Association members will continue to work together as an ASEAN nation to develop our competitive advantages to tackle the challenges confronting us. Together we will continue to realise the vision that inspired our founding fathers to create ASEAN as region of peace, prosperity and harmony.