Sandakan Port remains busy amidst pandemic
SANDAKAN: Member of Parliament for Sandakan, Vivian Wong said the continuous development of Sandakan Port and services are critical not only for the economic growth of the district, but is as crucial for the economic growth for Sabah as well.
She said this after a working visit to the Sandakan Port in Karamunting on Monday.
She was received by Sandakan Port senior manager Elsie Philip, who briefed her and her team on the facilities at the port, the challenges faced as well as the opportunity for growth.
Even though there were much talks on developing Sapangar Bay Container Terminal as the hub port for the past decade, Vivian said Sandakan Port remains the busiest port in Sabah in terms of number of vessels called and total cargo tonnage throughput.
In 2019, Sandakan Port received 1,251 vessels, representing 29 percent of the total number of vessels to Sabah’s ports, while total cargo throughput registered at wharf was 4.56 million metric ton, mainly driven by export of crude palm oil.
“During this whole Covid-19 pandemic saga, most flights in and out of Sandakan have been cancelled as movements of people are highly restricted by the Movement Control Order (MCO). However, our seaport operation remains as active as before to ensure that movements of goods are unaffected.
“Sandakan Port continues to be our main import and export channel and hence, a crucial link for our economic viability.
“The post-Covid economic revival is the number one agenda for all of us. I would like to thank Elsie for bringing up the issue of the shallow depth at the Sandakan harbour entrance channel, which has prevented larger cargo vessel from calling at the port, hence, directly affecting the competitiveness of our port as well as the cost of goods in and out of our port, as bigger vessels tend to enjoy greater economy of scale,” said Vivian.
On the other hand, she said the issue of transhipment activities and barter trade with Southern Philippines is also another concern being raised regularly by our business community.
She pointed out that the trading volume with the Southern Philippines via transhipment barter trade exceeded RM1 million every month before the Covid outbreak.
“I urge the government to lift the ban on these activities in view of the recent reopening of the economy. We can resume these activities with all parties adhere to the required standard operating procedure (SOP) just like other economic sectors in the country.
“I strongly believe that Sandakan is geographically ideal to serve as the trading hub for Southern Philippines, Northern Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Northern Kalimantan.
“Further, we are also strategically located along Makassar Straits, which is a major shipping route for bulk cargo globally,” she said.
Vivian concluded that with conducive government policy coupled with the necessary investment from both public and private sectors to overcome our existing obstacles, there is a great potential for Sandakan to be a major trade centre for crude palm oil, biodiesel and other related products.