KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) will soon become the sole maritime law agency in the country.

Royal Malaysian Navy chief Admiral Datuk Seri Abdul Aziz Jaafar said MMEA would be taking over the enforcement role and duties of other maritime agencies.

This would take the burden off the other agencies so they could concentrate on other enforcement duties, he said after giving a lecture on the "Navy's Role In Sustaining Regional Maritime Security", organised by Maritime Institute of Malaysia here on Tuesday.

"It is government policy that the agency will become the primary maritime law enforcer while the navy will concentrate on defence and war."

Currently, there are several other maritime enforcement agencies, including police, Customs, fisheries and marine departments.
Aziz said at this stage, manpower from other agencies were being absorbed by MMEA but not everyone were volunteering for the transfer.

He added that due to this, MMEA was also recruiting new personnel to make it a strong functional body.