KUALA LUMPUR – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) under the Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics (RFTI) has been entrusted by the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA) to lead a project related to analytical data and public data.

The signing ceremony between both parties was held at the MIMA office located at Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, Kuala Lumpur on 4th January 2021. UTM was represented by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Nazri Kama while MIMA was represented by Datuk Dr. Sabirin Ja’afar.

Dr. Nazri said that this consultation project entitled “The Development of Maritime Malaysia Analytical Dashboard: Malaysia as Maritime Nation” was awarded to UTM to be carried out in four months starting from January until April 2021.

“This project was led by me and a team of 10 researchers namely Dr. Mazlan Ali, Dr. Roslina Ibrahim, Dr. Saiful Adli Ismail, Dr. Rasimah Che Mohd Yusoff, Dr. Nilam Nur Amir Sjarif, Dr. Nurulhuda Firdaus Mohd Azmi, Dr. Hazlifah Mohd Rusli, Dr. Intan Syazrina Saimi, and Dr. Faizura Haneem.

This project aims to produce an Analytical Dashboard that will display data related to the five major Malaysian maritime clusters. The dashboards which are about to be developed, will also collect data related to Maritime Malaysia in an effort to further elevate the maritime industry in our country which has been known as an ocean nation since time immemorial,” said Dr. Nazri.

Meanwhile, the Director-General of MIMA, Datuk Dr. Sabirin Jaa’far stated that Malaysia is a country that is rich in sea-based products and has enormous potential to become a world-class maritime country.

“Holding to this fact, it is important for Malaysia to make this potential a reality. As a country surrounded by 614,159 square kilometers of the sea which is almost double the landmass, Malaysia has a high potential to raise the country’s glory as a maritime country in Southeast Asia as well as in the world.

Unfortunately, we are still lacking in the aspects of comprehensive and systematic documentation of maritime data. Therefore, this project is expected to contribute to the collection of Malaysian maritime data which in turn will help MIMA to move forward in elevating and accelerating the maritime sector in Malaysia,” said Dr. Sabirin.