KUCHING: Sarawak may abolish the cabotage policy which requires all goods to enter the state through Port Klang, says Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing.
The state development of infrastructure and ports minister said there had been complaints from shippers and stakeholders affected by the policy.
“There is a possibility that it might happen because I have a lot of shippers coming to see me, and they are not happy with the cabotage policy.
“It is practical. It’s for the shippers, they are the stakeholders.
“If the stakeholders are not happy, who am I (to object)?” he said at the Sarawak International Business and Economic Summit, here, today.
“The state government can decide on its own... we will look into that carefully,” he said, adding that Sarawak had the most ships in the country.
A similar view was expressed by Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Openg in 2017.
He said he and state cabinet ministers viewed the repeal of the policy as one of the ways to lower the price of goods in Sarawak.
He also said that it would ease efforts to develop the state’s basic infrastructure as construction materials were also being brought into the state through Port Klang. - Bernama