KOTA KINABALU – The Lahad Datu Palm Oil Cluster (POIC) has signed a strategic collaboration with China’s Shandong Port Overseas Development, linking Sabah’s industrial park with hundreds of ports around the world.
China’s Shandong Port Overseas Development Group has four port groups along China’s eastern seaboard under its wings – Qingdao Port, Rizhao Port, Yantai Port and Bohai Bay Port.
It also has access to 313 shipping routes, of which 173 are international, 113 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership national ports and 84 Belt and Road Member port routes.
A statement issued by POIC Sdn Bhd today noted that the signing of the Strategic Collaboration Agreement will bring Sabah closer to becoming a regional logistical hub.
POIC Sabah chairman Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee said the size and business of the Shandong Port Overseas Development Group are invaluable assets to POIC.
“What we believe we can offer is a good industrial park with a comprehensive port infrastructure, located in a region with extremely rich resources, promising markets and served by an increasingly important Lombok-Makassar shipping superhighway.
“Our POIC Lahad Datu industrial park can grow to serve as a cargo consolidation and break-bulking hub creating access to markets and territories in our region of about 78 million people,” he said.
Shandong Port Overseas Development Group chairman Zhang Quan Cheng described the agreement as a win-win cooperation.
Shandong Port Overseas Development has port and logistics related business in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and West Africa.
POIC chief executive officer Datuk Fredian Gan and Shandong Port Overseas Development Group Xu Wei signed on behalf of their respective firms. – The Vibes, April 13, 2022
