I have never attacked Minister of Special Tasks Datuk Teo Chee Kang, nor undermined the state government’s effort in establishing strategic partnership between Sepanggar Port and Ports of China.
In my previous press statement pertaining this issue (in Chinese), I only pointed out that Federal government had no intention of developing Sepanggar Port.
Hence, I never “oppose for the sake of opposing” as I never oppose against Teo’s suggestion to establish ties between Sepanggar Port and China Ports.
Instead, it was Ho himself who “has exposed his tendency to politicize everything in order to gain cheap publicity.
If Federal government really interested in developing Sepanggar port, why does Sepanggar port never listed under Malaysia-China Ports Alliance, a strategic alliance that will serve not only as a maritime network between the two countries, but also the bond of trade and business and tourism.
Under the port alliance, 10 Chinese ports – Dalian, Shanghai, Ningbo, Qinzhou, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Shezhen, Hainan and Taicang, will collaborate with six Malaysian ports – Port Klang, Malacca, Penang, Johor, Kuantan and Bintulu.
Sepanggar Port of Sabah, left out in this strategic alliance. Is that a proof that Federal government never has ours in their mind? In Ho’s statement, he didn’t dare to respond to this point I raised up earlier.
Is RM1.1 billion a very big fund to expand Sepanggar Bay Container Port (SBCP)? One should compare apple to apple, then a broader perspective is taken to do the comparison.
In Sarawak, Bintulu Port Authority has planned to invest RM550mil in six major port development projects to reduce its dependency on liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo.
The new Samalaju Industrial Port, developed at a cost of RM1.8 billion, is expected to commence operation in June this year.
Isn’t it the port upgrading / developing fund in Sarawak is bigger than us in Sabah?
What can we achieve with the RM1.1 billion allocated? Our Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Pairin Kitingan had said before, it has the capacity to achieve the cargo volume of more than 1.25 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) per annum by 2030 and will be at par with other ports such as Pulau Pinang and Johor.
But how much actually we need?
According to another Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah, at least RM2 billion is needed to develop the Sepanggar Port here into a transshipment hub in the region.
Tan had said the cost depends on the size of the area and location of where the works will start.
Works to expand the port will be implemented in phases and careful planning is important as this will include the development of the infrastructure in Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) where some RM300 million is needed.
Apparently, the RM1.1 billion is just a starter pack, it was still far behind the budget needed to build Sepanggar port as transhipment hub.
For Sabah to unlock to potentials of container exchange it has to deal with the lack of manufacturing and downstream processing activities that led to insufficient container volume.
The volume of import containers is twice as large as export containers, thus affecting freight rates with ships having to return half-empty.
The average size of shipment or container exchange in Sepanggar Port, for instance, was 287 TEUs in 2016, compared to 500 to 1,200 TEUs container exchange prevailing at the container ports of Peninsular Malaysia.
Therefore, I urge Ho to spend his time together with his party LDP, in demanding the two important “gifts” from Federal Government that is
doubling of the budget to RM2 billion to develop SBCP and to include Sepanggar Port in the Malaysia-China Ports Alliance.