STATE Industry, Entrepreneurship and Transport Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick said the State Government will begin a study on a sustainable transport master plan for Sabah covering land, sea and air transport.
“The Ministry will begin a study on a sustainable transport master plan for Sabah. This will not only look at land transport but also sea and air transport, along with other related matters,” he said in his winding up on the Sabah Ports (Privatisation) (Amendment) Enactment 2026 Bill.
He said a proposal for a Maritime Academy would also be seriously considered as part of the study, following a suggestion raised by the Moyog Assemblyman on the need for Sabah to move toward sustainable ports.
Ewon said a coordination mechanism was needed to manage port related matters across Sabah, extending the same task force approach currently used to monitor the 10 action plans at Sepanggar Port to other ports including Tawau, Sandakan and the POIC Lahad Datu.
“If I can chair a task force monitoring the 10 action plans we are implementing at Sepanggar Port, there is no reason we cannot expand the same approach to cover other ports in Sabah,” he said.
He said this reflected the reasoning behind the Chief Minister’s decision to move the transport portfolio under the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, allowing transport matters to be better coordinated with industrial development.
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He also clarified that the amendment to the enactment did not affect any existing agreements, pointing out that no new decisions, agreements or policies had been made.
He said port charges remained under the Sabah Ports Authority’s control and invited any assemblyman who needed clarification on port matters to approach the Ministry directly.
“At the end of the day, this is Sabah’s problem. It is not one side’s problem or the other’s, it is Sabah’s problem that we need to work on together,” he said.
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