Sunday, 08 Dec 2019 03:15 PM MYT
“Merger and acquisition are supposed to happen naturally, we are not taking steps or any decision to force it on them. We are taking a hands-off approach,” he told Bernama in an interview recently. “You have to accept the fact that there will always be competition in the market. We can’t run away from it. There are policies in place in terms of protecting local interest and in terms of stake holding, licensing, and I think enough safeguards in terms of survival of the companies,” he opined.
He explained that the government is ready to provide more incentives to spur the industry, however, the administration needed more information on the incentives required by the industry. Currently, the shipping industry tonnage has shrunk to about nine million DWT due to the challenges such as low freight rates in maritime business.