MARITIME - Ancillary Services Vital

By SHARIDAN M. ALI Monday October 3, 2011 Mima: Important supporting structures needed to elevate industry KUALA LUMPUR: More emphasis should be given on the growth of maritime industry ancillary services to further enhance the country’s competitiveness as a maritime nation, said Maritime Institute of Malaysia (Mima) director-general Datuk Noor Aziz Yunan. He told StarBiz that maritime ancillary services formed important supporting structures for the country to elevate the industry to greater heights. “One of the important services is maritime legal service. Although we have made headway in setting up a Maritime Court, we are still lacking professionals from the legal fraternity that want to focus on this industry. “We really need to encourage more people to be involved in this area of the industry. “Not only that, we also need more services in maritime insurance and brokerage,” he said. He said this was because the shipping industry not only needed the infrastructure such as international standard terminals, but also the supporting industry to operate. “Thus, by growing our maritime ancillary services, it will entice more main shipping lines to make Malaysia their hubs,” he said. He said Mima also needed and welcomed more suitable candidates with experience and knowledge to join the institute. According to Noor Aziz, Mima, being the think-tank vested with conducting policy research on Malaysia’s maritime interests, will also strive to conduct more research and seminars to make proposals to the Government to further unlock the vast potential of the industry. “In our recent effort, Mima will conduct a seminar to promote the maritime sector as one of the National Key Economic Areas. (NKEAs). “The maritime sector for Malaysia is just not about shipping and ports, but it also provide s source of income to the country from oil and gas, tourism and fisheries,” he said, adding that the half-day seminar on promoting maritime as one of the NKEAs would be held today. Noor Aziz said Mima also focused on the other aspects of the industry such as security, navigational safety and environment. “One of the important matters that Mima is working on is on the South China Sea issue. “There are several overlapping claims including Malaysia, China, Philippines and Vietnam on certain areas in the sea that are creating tension in the important trade lane. “Not only that, navigational safety researches are also important for busy waterways and choke-point like the Straits of Malacca,” he said. Noor Aziz was appointed to helm Mima in early September. He previously served at the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency as deputy director-general (operations).