Sabah Ports signs MOU with Taiwan counterpart

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd and Taiwan International Ports Corporation Ltd (TIPC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on April 4 to explore business cooperation as well as look into strengthening bilateral port ties.

The MOU signifies a commitment from both parties to share port planning and operation strategies to enhance port performance and exploration of investment potential at Sabah Ports in Sabah.

“Over the past years, we have learnt of TIPC's many programs of cooperation and long standing friendships with other port operators and we feel privileged that TIPC has agreed to collaborate with Sabah Ports. We are eager to have TIPC as our strategic partner at this opportune time as Sabah Ports is developing its Transhipment Hub initiative for Sapangar Bay Container Port (SBCP). Through this collaboration, we hope to convince TIPC on the great potential that the Ports as well as the State of Sabah, has to offer,” said Datuk Karim Bujang, chairman of Sabah Ports, during a briefing session for the delegation.

The MOU entered will benefit Sabah Ports as it seeks to engage the expertise of the wellestablished state-owned TIPC, which manages seven commercial ports in Taiwan and handled a total combined throughput of 225 million Twenty Equivalent Unit (TEUs) in 2016. This augurs well for Sabah Ports as it embarks on the SBCP expansion plan which will upgrade the ports' capabilities to handle 1.21 million TEUs during the first phase of development and upon completion, will have the ability to accommodate 3.76 million TEUs.

“The main goal of the MOU signing is to create the synergy of mutual expertise and advantages for seeking cooperation opportunity in all aspects. We would like to share our different experience in port operation, cruise tourism, Free Trade Zone, logistics, land development, knowledge of port planning and construction for SBCP,” said Wu Meng Feng, chairman of TIPC.

Signing the MOU on behalf of TIPC, Wu further added that TIPC's general manager is expected to visit Sabah Ports for further cooperation evaluation.

The seven ports managed by TIPC include ports at Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Taipei, Suao and Anping.

Signing on behalf of Sabah Ports was its managing director, Ng Kiat Min who is also the Group Managing Director for Suria Capital Holdings Berhad, witnessed by Karim.