SARAWAK Transport Minister James Jemut Masing today sorted out the confusion over his announcement on the relaxation of the cabotage policy for Sabah and Sarawak.

He admitted he had been wrong in saying the policy, which took effect on Thursday, was only for six months.

Masing said “he could have been misinformed” when he made the announcement on May 24.

The Sarawak deputy chief minister also said a decision on whether the policy should be abolished or maintained would only be made after the six months.

The federal transport ministry had on May 31 announced that the no time frame had been set for any decision on the cabotage policy.

Prime Minister Najib Razak had on May 7 had announced a partial liberalisation of the policy for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan by allowing non-Malaysian flagged cargo ships to transport cargo directly between ports in the two Borneo states and Labuan.

The policy was implemented on Jan 1, 1980, with the aim of protecting and promoting a strong national shipping industry and make Port Klang the container hub port in Malaysia.

The transshipment from Port Klang, however, had been blamed by consumer groups in the two states for the high cost of many goods in Sabah and Sarawak compared with the peninsula.

When Masing announced the new policy was only temporary, consumers and shippers were left confused.

Shippers in the two states were up in arms, claiming the government cannot expect overnight results as the six months was too short to evaluate the effectiveness of the new policy.

Masing also said the Sarawak government would conduct a study on the impact of the new policy on the shipping industry in the state.

He said if the study finds there is a genuine concern, then the government is duty-bound to find a solution.

The federal transport ministry had also announced that it had set up a task force to assess the effectiveness and impact of the new policy.

“These findings will be used as the basis for our assessment of the effectiveness of the exemption. The assessment exercise is expected to take at least a year,” the ministry said in a statement. – June 4, 2017.