Suria Capital Holdings Berhad and subsidiary, Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd held the 2nd Sabah Port Forum on the 1st and 2nd October 2019 at Magellan Sutera, Sutera Harbour Resort, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The two-day forum is a continuum of the first Sabah Port Forum which successfully debuted in 2017.

Themed “Building The New Future: Unlocking Sabah’s Maritime Potential”, the 2nd Sabah Port Forum focusses on exploring Sabah’s maritime potentials and highlighting game changing factors that will transform Sabah’s economic future.  This includes highlighting  Sabah as a hub for trade and investment as well as showcasing selected investment models and concepts  from across the globe that have been successful in stimulating growth for the maritime and logistics sector.

Industry experts were presented to discuss the current logistics developments taking place in Sabah, opportunities in the State’s maritime and logistics landscape as well as highlighting Sapangar Bay Container Port’s hub potential for the intra-Asian market. A session on smart city development within Kota Kinabalu with an emphasis on smart city technology were also took place which Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, were also part of the session.

There were seven scheduled sessions lined up for the Forum and covered areas related to Sabah’s shipping connectivity, port and logistics investment, smart city focus, free trade zones, cross border trade and regulatory framework in respect to trade facilitation and port development. The forum was presented by 21 speakers and 7 moderators with bases in Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong, Dubai as well as Malaysia.

Guest of Honour, YB Datuk Frankie Poon Ming Fung, Minister of Health & People’s Wellbeing was presented to deliver the keynote address on behalf of the Chief Minister of Sabah, YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Mohd Shafie Bin Haji Apdal while YB Dato’ Kamarudin Jaffar, Deputy Minister of Transport delivered opening remarks on behalf of YB Anthony Loke Siew Fook, Minister of Transport Malaysia. An exhibition was held in tandem whereby members of the public are invited to on the Forum days.

Maritime Career talk was held on the second day which aims to provide students or school leavers with possible career choices in maritime as well to impart some basic introduction of the industry to the students. Speaker line up include the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport Malaysia, Shell Timur Sdn Bhd, Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology, Akademi Laut Malaysia, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Kasi Malaysia Sdn Bhd as well as Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd.

The Forum attracted at least 300 participants nationwide with participation from the government agencies, port users, industry players and the general public.  

The participants get the opportunity to know about logistic development initiatives undertaken by the government and the private sector, and to explore investment opportunities in the State as well as to gather with like-minded professionals for networking purposes.

Speakers presentation can be downloaded here.