The The state government plans to adopt the Singapore Port Authority model for the Sarawak Port Authority.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas revealed that he paid a research visit to Singapore Port in March last year to understand and learn from the reforms in Singapore’s port sector that took place in the 1990s.

“Since the visit, we have been able to engage with local authorities and the commercial arm of the port sector.

“We were able to gain a deeper understanding of the processes that the port sector goes through to ultimately become the world’s busiest transshipment port, transshipping approximately 20 percent of the world’s shipping containers,” he said. Stated.

He said this while presenting the Sarawak Port Management Bill 2024 on the second day of the 19th State Legislative Assembly (DUN) held on Tuesday (May 7).

Mr Uggah, who is also Minister for Ports and Infrastructure Development, said that historically the Port of Singapore Authority has been a statutory board with the function of regulating, operating and promoting the Port of Singapore since the 1960s.

He said that following the port’s success in becoming one of the world’s largest container ports in the 1990s, the Singapore government decided to reform the port sector and made the Port Authority of Singapore an independent state agency. He said that Congress has passed a bill to convert it into a commercial facility. The company was incorporated on August 25, 1997.

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

“The success of Singapore’s port policy is based on the importance of having a centralized regulatory body to promote, protect and assume the roles of port authorities, port regulators and port planners, as well as the corporatization or privatization of port operations. is shown.

“Therefore, we plan to adopt this model as the way forward once the bill takes effect,” he said.