Malaysia's PKA Chairman Urges ASEAN Ports To Forge Good Trade Ties With China

KLANG (Selangor, Malaysia), Aug 4 (Bernama) -- ASEAN ports should forge good trade relationship beyond its member countries, especially with China to see an increase in container throughput into the region from the republic, says Port Klang Authority (PKA) Chairman, Kong Cho Ha. He said this was vital taking into account the current capacity of Malaysia's Port Klang and Port of Tanjung Pelepas (a container port located in Malaysia's southern state Johor) and the Singapore Port being an important transshipment ports for China. "By looking at China's continuous rise as an economic power, we need to engage with it (China) to enhance trade by bringing in higher cargo volumes into the ASEAN," he told reporters after the opening of the 36th ASEAN Ports Association (APA) Working Committee meeting here Tuesday. Kong said ASEAN ports were currently upgrading their infrastructure facilities and resources to support greater trade with China. He said this development has benefited from the spillover from greater trade between the region and China, with its continuous rise as an economic power. Kong said Malaysia’s Port Klang is establishing sister-port relationships with seven ports in China -- Shanghai, Ningbo, Tianjin, Guang­zhou, Xiamen, Dalian and Fuzhou. He said the relationship would greatly boost development in both nations in terms of trade, logistics and tourism. "This is in line with the China Initiative - 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), which has made Port Klang one of the most important ports in support of this initiative," he said. On another note, Kong said, Malaysian ports handled 22 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2014, out of which 10.95 million TEus were handled by Port Klang and 8.7 million TEUs by Port of Tanjung Pelepas. He said Port Klang recorded a growth of 9.6 per cent in terms of container throughput in the first half of this year. Earlier, in his speech, Kong said APA was an important forum for Asean ports to exchange experiences in order to overcome common challenges and to find ways to enhance opportunities and strengths. Port Klang is a city and the largest port in Malaysia. --BERNAMA