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Malaysian shipowners are appealing to the
government to defer its unexpected decision to relax the national
cabotage shipping policy.
The local shipowners represented by Malaysia Shipowners'
Association, said the decision to partially liberalise the
cabotage policy and allow foreign shipping lines in the domestic
trade should be held back at least until the economy, now in
technical recession, recovers.
"It is bad enough that the national cabotage policy will be
relaxed to allow foreigners in the transshipment trade between
Port Kelang and Tg. Pelepas in Peninsular Malaysia and that Kota
Kinabalu in Sabah and Kuching and Bintulu in Sarawak to compete in
a limited market but it will be a double whammy if the policy is
relaxed immediately when the shipping market is in the doldrums,"
said Malaysian Shipowners' Association (MASA) chairman Nordin Mat
Yusoff.
He said most of the Malaysian operators in the domestic trade are
facing severe financial and operational problems as well as low
freight rate and excess capacity in the market as a result of the
collapse of the freight market.
The move by the government to allow foreign shipping lines to
carry international transshipment cargo between Peninsular
Malaysian ports of Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas and Kuching,
Bintulu and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and Sarawak is said to have
been made following a paper presented by the Ministry of Transport
at the Cabinet meeting last week.
MASA, representing more than 85 per cent of the shipowners' in the
country, felt let down by the government, as it had a duty of care
to Malaysian shipowners and to protect national interests since
cabotage is recognised even by the World Trade Organisation as an
instrument of national policy.
"We feel the government should at least defer its decision to
relax the cabotage immediately because the shipping markets are in
the doldrums and most of the Malaysian operators serving the
domestic trade are facing
severe financial and operational problems as well as low freight
rate and excess capacity in the market as a result of the collapse
of the freight market," Nordin said.
MASA said the government must also give the market players
sufficient notice of its intention to relax the cabotage policy
and "not change such key national policy overnight in the
mid-stream and placing local operators under dire straits and
severe consequences.
"Adequate notice would at least prepare local players in the trade
to take up position by reviewing their operational strategies or
strengthen and build up capacity to compete instead of
unceremoniously pulling the rug under our feet," said Nordin.
Several MASA members, especially those who have just ordered new
ships to be deployed in the domestic trade, could face severe
financial losses, the association pointed out.
"While we are perplexed with the dramatic manner the policy is
being relaxed, we are also disturbed to note that there is lack of
specificity in the government's decision, particularly in any
details in the need for continuous monitoring and feedback
mechanism on how and whether the relaxation of the cabotage policy
works," said Nordin.
He felt the Ministry of Transport should hold a dialogue with the
Customs and port terminal operators at the specified ports to
ensure that there is no abuse or deviation following the
relaxation of the cabotage policy. |
