Brunei International Air Cargo Centre (BIACC) and Maritime and Port Authority of Brunei Darussalam (MPABD) recently signed two Tenancy Agreements for the Management, Operation and Maintenance of Inland Container Depots (ICD) at Sungai Tujuh and Kuala Lurah in a virtual signing ceremony.
The agreement was signed by Permanent Secretary (Investment) at the Ministry of Finance and Economy and Chairman of Brunei International Air Cargo Centre (BIACC) Hj Khairuddin Hj Abdul Hamid and Acting Chief Executive of MPABD Captain Abdul Mateen Abdurrahman Liew @ Martin.
The event marked a major milestone for BIACC in its strategic plan to support the realisation of the nation’s Wawasan 2035 through the Strategic Priorities outlined in the Brunei Darussalam Economic Blueprint initiated by the Ministry of Finance and Economy in providing an efficient and reliable transport and logistics system and infrastructure.
Hj Khairuddin said that the strategic locations of both ICDs near the border between Brunei and Sarawak, Malaysia will enable BIACC to facilitate and accelerate the movement of cross-border cargo transactions for domestic and regional distributions in a more efficient way.
Moreover, various handling services and facilities will be offered for the benefit of the operators in the logistics and transport chain of both sides of the borders.
The permanent secretary further said that ICDs will improve the ease of doing business aspect in Brunei Darussalam and drive down the logistic costs and subsequently lowering customers’ costs, giving them better value for money, which are characteristics to attract foreign direct investments (FDIs).
“BIACC will adopt an operating model that is technology-centric where the logistics process will be digitally driven and supported by a modern warehouse management system to offer a host of services for users,” he said.
Among the key services and facilities to be introduced include bonded warehousing, cross border e-Commerce fulfillment warehousing, sea container clearance (un-stuffing and stuffing) import and export warehousing with build-up and break down services, parcel processing center, consolidation, temporary storage, documentation processing, reefer refrigeration points, open yard material storage, cleaning services for shipping containers and nationwide and cross-border transportation services.
The ICD complexes will also accommodate the office of Royal Customs and Excise, other government agencies as well freight forwarding companies and shipping lines agents to serve the needs of cargo customers.
Under the agreement, MPABD awards BIACC with a tenancy of three years to manage, operate, and maintain the ICDs as licensed warehouses and offer services that will bring in added value to the customers.
On his part, Captain Abdul Mateen Abdurrahman Liew said the agreement was expected to allow both agencies to leverage each other’s strengths in logistics.
“MPABD will render its support to BIACC to facilitate the realisation of BIACC’s objectives to improve the logistics services in Brunei Darussalam,” he said. – Azrina Zin
This article was first published on 20 November 2021 in our Weekly E-Paper issue 168|
THE BRUNEIAN | BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
