KOTA KINABALU: Local companies should not be subjected to the 51% bumiputra equity ruling in the freight forwarding business as it is among the areas liberalised under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), says Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

       The Parti Warisan Sabah president said the requirement, set to take effect in December 2022, was not fair to local freight companies as foreign companies were free to operate without restrictions.

       He said the government should scrap the 51% bumiputra ownership policy for the local freight forwarding companies.

       "The requirement is a form of discrimination to local players in the logistics industry," he said in a statement on Wednesday (Sept 29).

       Shafie said foreign companies under an industry which had been liberalised operated in line with the FTA.

       "Any condition that curbs foreign companies in the liberalised industry could be considered a violation of the FTA.

       "It is therefore not fair for the government to enforce the equity rule to the industries' local players," he said.

       The government, Shafie noted, had decided to liberalise the industry and it was open to any international companies without any conditions of national policy under the FTA.

       "The same principle should apply to local freight companies," he added.

       He also urged the government to study the policy carefully to see if there was readiness among bumiputra players to take up equity in the companies.

       "Our fear is that most companies in the freight industry might not be able to survive as there are too few eligible bumiputras to take over equities in such companies because they are still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic," he said, adding that they might have to sell to foreign owners.

       Shafie said Warisan was in support of closing the socioeconomic gap between the bumis and non-bumis in the country but at the same time, it should also be done fairly.