Singapore model to shape Sarawak Ports Authority

THE state government will be adopting the model of Port of Singapore Authority for its Sarawak Ports Authority.

Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas disclosed that a study visit was made to Singapore port in March last year to understand and learn from the reformation of Singapore’s port sector that took place in the 1990s.

“From the visit, we were able to engage with the local authorities and commercial arm of the port sector.

“We got to better understand the process that the port sector had gone through and to eventually becoming the world’s busiest transshipment port that trans-ships about 20 per cent of the world’s shipping containers,” he said.

He said this when tabling the Sarawak Ports Authority Bill, 2024 on the second day of the 19th State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Tuesday (May 7).

Uggah who is also the Minister of Ports and Infrastructure Development said historically the Port of Singapore Authority was a statutory board that functions to regulate, operate, and promote the Port of Singapore since the 1960s.

Following the port’s success in becoming one of the world’s largest container ports in 1990s, he said the Singapore government had decided to reform its port sector and passed a Bill in parliament to convert the Port of Singapore Authority which was a state organisation into an independent commercial company on Aug 25, 1997.

“The regulatory functions of the Port of Singapore Authority were then transferred to Singapore’s new maritime regulator, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

“The success of Singapore’s port policy portrays the importance of corporatisation or privatisation of port operations and at the same time having a centralised regulatory body to facilitate, safeguard and taking on the roles of Port Authority, Port Regulator, and Port Planner.

“Therefore, we are adopting this model as the way forward once the Bill comes into force,” he said.