Malaysia to step up efforts to woo marine investments

Malaysia has to step up efforts to attract foreign investments in the marine industries for it to become a developed maritime nation, its trade minister said, Business Times reported.

"This will bring about the transfer of technologies and expertise, create new capacities, fill in vacuum in services not available in the country and help contribute to the creation of high-value jobs," International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said.

Malaysia was ranked 18th among 35 most important maritime countries and territories by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development last year, in terms of deadweight tonnage of its merchant vessels.

About 95 percent of Malaysia's international trade is through seaports, and its contribution to trade and economic growth can be assessed through the growth of the container throughput volume of its ports.

Container traffic at the 10 major ports in Malaysia was recorded at 15.17 million TEUs in 2008.

Investments in the marine transport sub-sector stood at US$286.4 million last year, mostly in shipbuilding, ship repair and the manufacture of metal fabricated products, mainly for the oil and gas industry.

(Source: Cargo News Asia)