Revitalising Malaysia's maritime industry through BRI cooperation

SINCE the heyday of the Straits of Malacca, where Malacca was a major transshipment port between India and China, the country has had a significant history of maritime trade.

However, the focus has since shifted to land as the basis of economic and political strength.

It is perhaps time for the Malaysian government to recognise the importance of the maritime industry once again, as a key item on the development agenda for the well-being and prosperity of the country and its people.

Among the initiatives taken to revive the glory of maritime trade was through Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation projects, such as the one involving Kuantan Port.

The port, on the east coast of the peninsula, has become an important hub and is currently the fastest shipping route between Malaysia and China.

It has two terminals, Kuantan Port 1 and the New Deep-Water Terminal (NDWT), which enable them to receive big vessels with 16m draught and a capacity of 180,000 tonnes, compared to 50,000 tonnes previously before the investment from China.

From a perspective of economic viability, this capacity expansion is essential for manufacturers and the cost of logistics is also optimised due to its location, which is less developed than the west coast.

This initiative will develop and stimulate growth on the east coast and eventually lower the poverty rate in Malaysia by creating more job opportunities for people in the area.

Moreover, it was reported in August last year that Kuantan Port has grown from a small port into an increasingly important trading hub, connecting multiple ports in Asean and Japan, in addition to China.

BRI has not only improved connectivity between China and Malaysia but also extended its reach to various regions within China through combined sea and rail transportation.

For instance, durian shipments were transported to south-west China using cold-chain sea-railway transportation for the first time.

These tropical fruits were initially shipped to Qinzhou Port in th Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China, before being taken by rail to south-western regions such as Chongqing and Chengdu.

Besides that, in April 2022, Kuantan Port and Qinzhou Port entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly establish a New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Logistic Node.

This MOU facilitates not only long-term cooperation but also resource sharing between the two ports by leveraging on the New Western Land-Sea Corridor which corridor links 190 ports across 90 countries.

The continuous growth of the maritime sector through an international trading hub like Kuantan Port not only creates a higher demand for port infrastructure and logistics facilities but also for professional labour and advancements in maritime technology.

These demands may lead to other collaboration opportunities between countries.

For instance, higher education institutions in China could collaborate with their Malaysian counterparts offering academic programmes related to the maritime field to pursue scholarly research, policies, geoscience, education and training, etc.

The country’s education efforts in the maritime field need to be enhanced to meet the demand for professionals, skilled and semi-skilled labour to align with the recent advancement of the country’s maritime industry.

This could be evidenced by Budget 2024, where the government has allocated RM6.8bil for technical and vocational education and training (TVET), to be utilised in developing human capital that meets current and future demand in fields such as maritime.

Therefore, Malaysia and China may consider exploring such potential collaboration which will contribute to the economic growth in both countries in various sub-sectors of the maritime field, such as marine tourism, education, science and technology, security, energy or even sustainability – not just ports and shipping.

Given the rise of transnational commercial trade, Malaysia needs a robust framework of legal and regulatory instruments that govern maritime activities to ensure that the industry achieves sustainable growth.

Therefore, the government must update the country's maritime law to meet the needs of current circumstances, as currently, Malaysia still relies on UK legislation, as stated by Federal Court judge Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan in her keynote address at the third Maritime Law and Business Conference 2023.

The Maritime Institute of Malaysia (Mima), in its journal last year, also reported that the country needs to revisit and update its maritime education and maritime law and upskill its labour force to have more competent mariners due to the expansion of global trade.

Malaysia will be left behind if there is a lack of political will, coordination and cooperation between the relevant ministries and the private sector.

To conclude, the BRI has marked the revitalisation of the maritime trade in Malaysia and represents a new paradigm for international economic cooperation through its ambitious plans.

There is no doubt that the mega projects envisioned will not only have a positive impact on our country’s maritime economy and the people but also encourage future collaboration and push the legislature to develop Malaysia’s maritime law and policies for the future.

Kong Chai Sin is a Lecturer at Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT). The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

The SEARCH Scholar Series is a social responsibility programme jointly organised by the South-East Asia Research Centre for Humanities (SEARCH) and Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT), in conjunction with the 10-year anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative.