LAHAD DATU: Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC Lahad Datu) Port, Malaysia's latest public port east of Sabah, is gaining attention as it starts to "connect the dots".
Launched and declared mid last year, the port looks set to serve the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines - East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region and act as a gateway to Nusantara, Indonesia's new national capital in East Kalimantan.
Northport chief executive officer Datuk Azman Shah Mohd Yusof said this recently when leading a delegation on a visit to the port, hosted by the state-owned POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd.
Azman said POIC Lahad Datu Port will be a significant connection eventually and the key is "connecting the dots" by consolidating ports, resources and cargo in the region in BIMP EAGA.
It has the potential to serve as a gateway to Nusantara and the surrounding territories in Indonesia, making POIC Lahad Datu a logistics hub for the region, he said.
Northport and POIC Sabah first came together in 2019, premised on the prospects of undertaking joint business development, linking Port Klang with Lahad Datu, halal goods trade and supply chain dynamics between the Southern Philippines and Kalimantan, Indonesia.
However, the global Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to last year held up progress until recently when Azman, on Jan 27, led a high level delegation from Northport to meet up with POIC Sabah in Kota Kinabalu and then went on a site visit to the POIC Port in Lahad Datu for the first time.
POIC Sabah was led by its deputy chief executive officer, Lynette Hoo.
In the engagement, both sides also kept up with dialogue to firm up aspects of business to move forward from the initial Strategic Collaboration Agreement signed between the two parties in 2019.
The pandemic, however, shelved plans made earlier.
Northport is part of the publicly-listed MMC Group, a leading utilities and infrastructure group in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Hoo said while both parties weighed on aspects of collaboration that could conclude in a formal agreement, POIC Sabah values its exposure to Northport by virtue of its global recognition, organisation and maturity.
The Northport International Centre of Excellence and its extensive port- and maritime-related training and compliance programmes are especially relevant to POIC Lahad Datu as it moves to consolidate its position as a logistics hub for BIMP EAGA, she said.