Global maritime challenges

A shipping policy and international transportation law expert from Cardiff University has delivered a presentation on global maritime challenges at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) in Malaysia.

Speaking to a delegation of policymakers, government agencies, maritime and shipping professionals, Dr Rawindaran Nair, a Lecturer in Logistics and Operations Management section of Cardiff Business School, focused his attention on the strategic challenges and perspectives for Malaysia.

Following welcoming remarks from Thomas Daniel, Senior Analyst at ISIS Malaysia, Dr Nair explained how discourses surrounding the management of ocean resources are becoming increasingly focused on global interests like trade and sustainability.

Rising global focus

In the face of these grand challenges, Dr Nair shared emerging ideas on the global institutional participation of states, like Malaysia, through international instruments such as UNCLOS 1982 and the wider navigational rules applied through the International Maritime Organization related to ship operations.

He went on to state that the rising importance of high density of ships navigating the Straits of Malacca, will also be influenced by global challenges such as the widening of the Panama Canal since 2016. Further, the ongoing conflict in the sea route along the South China Sea need to be seen in terms of the future of ocean borne navigation to both trade as well as global sustainability.

Driving the future

Finally, he argued that the ideas on the political and economic institutional perspectives will be driving the future, with states playing a more dominant role in establishing outcomes for global sustainability.

His talk offered key recommendations for stakeholders from policymakers and government agencies, to maritime and shipping professionals and private sector players, that will enable Malaysia to seize and maximise its competitive advantage in the global maritime domain.

The presentation concluded with an engaging question and answer session, which saw Dr Nair reflect on how these global challenges would impact on Malaysia as a nation in a strategic location of the world major sea routes.

The future approaches as a nation with the geopolitical context within the world’s major sea routes and how policy dimensions in the maritime sector would evolve, emerged as important observations.

This included the need to be aware of the global evolution of engagement by states in an international level, and how this would impact on policies for the maritime industry in Malaysia.

Read Dr Nair’s presentation here.