KUCHING: The state government is willing to listen to the opinion and imput from the two major stakeholders affected by the cabotage policy, said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing.
According to him, the two major stakeholders affected by the policy are the consumers and shippers.
“Whatever it is, the state government will have to take everybody’s views into consideration and come up with a solution that will be-nefit majority of the people,” said Masing in his winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting, on Friday.
He said the cabotage policy referred to the transportation of goods or passengers between two places within the same country by transport operators from another country.
He said that in Layman’s term, the exemption of cabotage policy would mean that foreign vessels would be allowed to move goods between domestic ports in Sarawak without having to engage local shippers.
“It is therefore normal for consumers to assume that cost of goods will reduce in proportion with the reduction in ocean freight which is a component that is directly related to cabotage policy.
“To find out more, we compare the charges between overseas shippers and local shippers. Because the shipping industry calculates the rate based on transit time and not distance, we therefore compare ocean freight charges for Port Klang to Kuching, and Bangkok to Port Klang, both with transit time of three days and based on a 20-footer containerised cargo,” he said, adding that depending on the size of the vessel, the ocean freight might vary within the region of plus-minus 10 per cent of the benchmark prices.
Masing also said that due to claims that the exemption of the cabotage policy would not lead to lower prices of goods in the state, then there had to be some other reasons for this.
“If indeed the claim is correct, then exemption of cabotage policy may not reduce the cost of goods imported into Sarawak and detailed study will therefore need to be conducted.
“Is it because of double handling? Or is there any other cost factors within the transportation chain that we may have overlook?” he asked.
He also disclosed that another review of the effect would be conducted after six months by the Ministry of Transport Malaysia (MOT) because of the uncertainty.
