Make Sepanggar the Far East hub: FSI
Kota Kinabalu: The success of Sabah in getting out of being one of the poorest states lies in exploiting not only its commodities and geographical location, but also being an international shipping and service hub in Asia, akin to what Dubai is in the Middle East.
The Federation of Sabah Industries (FSI) calls on Malaysians in Sabah to make the State, particularly Kota Kinabalu, successful in its Sepanggar Port quest to be the ‘Hub for the Far East’ to realign the policy to neutralise the disadvantages of the costly policy, as soon as possible.
Their future and that of their children’s destiny is in their own hands which would be brighter if they could depend on the services industry progress of Sabah as an international hub for shipping, trade, aviation, tourism and services, realigning the Cabotage policy to make Kota Kinabalu advantageous as a second load centre for goods from the Far East to Port Klang.
Spearheading what was termed as a the long-term struggle, FSI President Datuk Wong Khen Thau in a media briefing said: “Blue Ocean strategist, Professor Kim said that Sabah is 10 times better than Dubai,” exhorting that there is no reason why Sabah could not be as successful as Dubai, which he described was a fishing village five decades ago, now an international aviation, shipping, financial and trade hub connecting Europe, Africa to Asia.
Sabah’s success is also Malaysia’s success, he said, regretting that much time and opportunity costs had gone by with too much engrossment with racial and religious issues when more attention could have been invested in more progressive nation building and economic achievements with the right direction and vision, amidst increasing competitive and challenging situations.
The urgency appears more apparent when other states and countries are forging ahead with similar aspiration from Balikpapan in Indonesia to General Santos Port in the Philippines.
Wong said Thailand’s Isthmus of Kra Canal project if realised could by-pass the Straits of Malacca and Singapore to Indochina where rail links to China and her railways to Russia and Europe.
Alternately, exports from Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan could be landed at Kota Kinabalu’s Sepanggar Port as Malaysia’s second national load centre.
This will offer local ships the volume they seek not to return empty to Port Klang and charging Sabah importers double rates for carriage from Port Klang to Sabah.
“Lee Kuan Yew once said if the Malaysian government had developed a major transhipment port hub in East Malaysia, Singapore could be impacted,” said Wong.
“This may not happened in my lifetime, but the struggle must continue for the future,” Wong stressed, whether it might take 10 or 20 years or more.
Only with the rate of success as seen achieved by Dubai, would Sabah be seen as important and her human resources developed be able to be on par with the world’s best, working ably together.
“This is a long term struggle to prosper Sabah, Malaysia as well as prospering neighbouring regions so that peace and economic migration especially from Mindanao could be alleviated,” said Wong as he likened the Sabah and Southern Philippines as like the United States and Mexico with economic migrants moving from the latter to the former.
He said that Sabah and Malaysia have to tighten control and laws not to grant citizenship to foreign migrants as in the case of Dubai so that there would be no worries on reverse take-over.
Wong called for better speedier Internet connectivity, patronage for local products.
He hoped that public spending would not be drastically reduced this year as businesses need buyers and as the government’s revised its budget and reduced unnecessary wastage in the face of global uncertainties.
He lauded the government’s decision to accord visa fee free for tourists from China to help boost the tourism sector as many tourists buy many Sabah products to bring back home boosting the local economy. Tourists want convenience and security.
FSI and other organisations would be meeting personnel from the Ministry of Transport over issues affecting the state over the next two days.
Source : Daily Express
