Good chance to be intra-Asia hub

Star Maritime 29 January 2007

Malaysia has strong chances to be the preferred intra-Asia hub for India over Singapore based on its cost effectiveness, efficiency, increasing port facilities and connectivity.
 
Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders (FMFF) acting president Tan Ah Beng said the country could be the ideal hub for the emerging economic giant due to competitive pricing compared to the island port.
 
“Furthermore, with our current port facilities and connectivity, we are in conducive condition to accept the growing trade between India and China as well as intra-Asia trade.
 
“We are not just looking at importing and exporting cargo from India, but more importantly Malaysia can be the centre to collect and transport good in the South East Asia (SEA) region to be exported or transhipped there and vice versa.
 
“Thus, local logistics players are urged to link up to their Indian counterparts to speed up the process and grab the chances.
 
“Freight forwarders now have to be prepared to be the cargo generators and carriers will flock to the most productive location,” he said in an interview at the second Asian Freight Forwarders Forum at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre last week.
 
The forum, which was attended by 300 freight forwarders in the Asian region was a platform for exchanging awareness of business opportunities and business models of each country.
 
The assembly also opened up opportunity for facilitators of cargo movement namely ports, freight forwarders, shipping lines and multimodal transport operators to interact.
 
Besides presentations, dedicated business-to-business meetings had also helped freight forwarders to tap networking opportunities as well as to understand the requirement of each country's policy and regulations.
 
Among the major ports that participated in the forum were the Port of Marseille, Port of Luka Koper and Kenya Ports and they explored trade facilitation, facilities, market and connectivity at their respective hubs.
 
Indian Ports Association and Mumbai Port Trust chairman Rani A.Jadhav said Malaysia and the whole of the SEA region held strong potential to support Indian expanding business and trade.
 
“With both of our import and export are growing up at a 25% rate annually, SEA region will be a good area to extend our business ties.
 
“Similarly, the countries here can utilise our ports particularly our east coast ports to be the shuttle service hub to west or north Asia instead of going to Singapore.
 
“I think it will be the most convenient as it will cut on cost and reduce voyage time,” she said.
 
In India, Rani said the port sector has been given a special focus by its Government.
 
“Our National Committee of Infrastructure is headed by our prime minister and maritime industry are given high priority on capacity expansion of our ports.
 
“We foresee there will be a quantum leap in the trade volume as we have been supported by liberalisation and privatisation policies.
 
“In near future, we are targeting to handle 1.5 billions tonnes of cargo and we are streamlining our operations in terms of performance, efficiency and activities,” she said.

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