Northport visit shows firm interest in POIC Lahad Datu
LAHAD DATU: Like bees drawn to honey, the Sabah East Coast’s strategic location in East Asean and the wide business potentials are drawing widening interest.
Complementing this is the well-developed POIC Lahad Datu industrial park and its comprehensive port infrastructure featuring dedicated terminals for dry bulk, liquid bulk and container cargo, as well as anticipated economic spin-offs from the establishment of Indonesia’s new national capital in East Kalimantan.
POIC Lahad Datu Port was declared and launched as a public port in 2022. These were sentiments expressed at the close of a visit to POIC Lahad Datu Monday by a high-level delegation of Northport Malaysia, the operator of one of Malaysia’s busiest ports in Klang, Selangor.
State-owned POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd is developing POIC Lahad Datu which is being promoted as a future logistics hub for the east Asean territories collectively known as BIMP EAGA.
Northport and POIC Sabah first came together in 2019 premised on the prospects of undertaking joint business development, linking Port Klang with Lahad Datu, halal goods trade and supply chain dynamics between Southern Philippines and Kalimantan, Indonesia.
The Covid-19 pandemic delayed progress until recently.
Northport Chief Executive Officer Dato Azman Shah Mohd Yusof and his team had met with top managers of POIC Sabah led by its Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Lynette Hoo in Kota Kinabalu on Jan 27.
The site visit was the first for the visitors since both sides came in contact. In between officers kept up with dialogue to firm up aspects of business to move forward from the initial Strategic Collaboration Agreement signed between the two parties in 2019.
Azman’s delegation consisted of Fakhrul Azhat Tajudin (General Manager, Terminal Operations), Mohd Tahir Mohd Azis (Acting Head, Facilities) and Nadiatul Hajar Md Rasip (Assistant Manager, Finance). Northport is part of the public-listed MMC Group, a leading utilities and infrastructure group in Malaysia. It breached the 10 million freight weight tonne threshold last year as well as 3.3 million TEUs (twenty-foot containers).
Meanwhile, Lynette said while both parties weighed on aspects of collaboration that could conclude in formal agreement, POIC Sabah values its exposure to Northport by virtue of its global recognition, organisation and maturity.
The Northport International Centre of Excellence (NICE) and its extensive port- and maritimerelated training and compliance programmes are especially relevant to POIC Lahad Datu as it moves to consolidate its position as a logistics hub for BIMP EAGA, she said.
Alluding to the potentials of the Lombok-Makassar shipping route and its relevance to POIC Lahad Datu, Azman said the key is in “connecting the dots’ by consolidating ports, resources and cargo in the region in BIMP EAGA.
He shared the vision of POIC Lahad Datu as a logistics hub for the region because the world is looking to POIC Lahad Datu as the gateway to Nusantara (the new Indonesian capital) and the surrounding territories.