Major logistics plans set to boost economy

Liow: Projects vital in reducing business costs

PETALING JAYA: Several large-scale infrastructure and logistics projects will be implemented as part of the Government’s logistics masterplan to promote trade and growth, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

The projects, listed under the second phase of the masterplan, include the Pulau Carey portindustrial city project, East Coast Rail Link, Digital Free Trade Zone and 24-hour Customs facilitation at the borders.

“This is critical because logistics support all sectors of the economy, facilitate trade, reduce costs of doing business and contribute to enhancing productivity and economic growth,” Liow said after chairing the task force meeting yesterday.

Other plans include setting up a regional ecommerce and logistics hub at KLIA Aeropolis, as well as developing Sabah as the regional logistics hub for Asean.

The Logistics and Trade Facilitation Masterplan, launched in 2015, is aimed at turning into the preferred logistics gateway to Asia by 2020. Liow said two Cabinet ministers had joined the National Logistics Task Force (NLTF), an interministry task force responsible for the implementation of the masterplan.

They are Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri and Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri . “I am confident that with the involvement of the two ministers representing key central agencies namely the Economic Planning Unit and the Finance Ministry – the NLTF will be further strengthened and become more robust in implementing the masterplan to improve the efficiency of the logistics industry,” said Liow.

He added that other members in the task force included representatives from the International Trade and Industry Ministry, Human Resources Ministry, Works Ministry, and other government agencies and departments, as well as logistics industry players.

Some 146,000 jobs, mostly in the highly skilled category, would be created with the successful implementation of the masterplan, Liow said. He said Malaysia’s cargo volume was also expected to grow 8% annually to 880 million tonnes by 2020.

The contribution of the transport and storage subsector to the country’s GDP was projected to increase from 3.6% in 2013 to 4.3% in 2020. The task force would also implement three projects which were scheduled under phase one but were not completed last year due to resource constraints, Liow said.

These included last-mile connectivity to Port Klang, addressing bottlenecks at the Padang Besar terminal in and developing u-Customs to provide a single window for goods clearance.

SOURCE : | PAGE: 10 | 8 APRIL 2017