Move should make up for additional cost in Tg Manis Port when Sg Lebaan Bridge completed

Rajang Port Authority (RPA) will suspend part of the port charges, at least for the period from the next one to two weeks to the end of the year.

MITIGATING MOVE: Goh (centre) talking to reporters while Hii Yu Siong (left) and Helen Lim look on.

It aims to alleviate traders' anticipated burden of the additional transshipment and handling charges at Tg Manis Port when the Sg Lebaan Bridge is completed.

RPA chairman Vincent Goh told a press conference yesterday that the quantum of the proposed port charges reduction had not been worked out.

"We're doing this with the cooperation of the port operator of Tg Manis Port," he said, adding that the amount to be reduced would be ready for approval by the RPA Board and the relevant authorities in a week or two.

Goh, who is Pelawan assemblyman, appealed to those in the shipping business to consider lowering the shipping charges.

His made the appeal on the ground that the shipment distance would be reduced should there be a need for transshipment at Tg Manis Port.

"Hopefully there is this reduced shipment charges to offset, to a certain extent, the additional barging cost to transport consignment from Tg Manis Port to RPA which consignees have to bear," he said.

He said RPA's primary concern and priority now was to ensure the transshipment cost would not trigger inflation. "The general consumers should not be made to absorb the higher cost that traders would have to face," he said.

The RPA chairman also mentioned that the port authority had in the last three years been persistent and relentless in studying the implications of the Sg Lebaan Bridge project for the economy of Sibu.

To allay the fear of certain quarters that the RPA might eventually be closed down, Goh said the RPA had been doing a lot to upgrade its facilities, which included the procurement of machinery and equipment such as four units of straddle carriers and forklift trucks.

"RPA has also started to have its wharf and container yard at Sibu upgraded," he said, adding that the port authority had recently added two empty container handlers to its fleet of machinery.

"All these amounted to RM35 million. Fully funded by RPA itself, and with the blessing and approval of the state government," he added.

With Goh at the press conference were RPA's general manager Helen Lim and president of Sibu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hii Yu Siong.

--TheBorneoPost