Cargo Manifest to go electronic

Published by New Straits Times (Computimes)

Main ports in the country will be introduced to a standardised electronic version of Cargo Manifest, a shipping document that provides the listing of items in a shipment with product descriptions, next year. Called e-Manifest, the system is currently being developed – and will be maintained – by e-business company Dagang Net Sdn Bhd.

For the project, the company is working with the Customs Department, International Shipping Owners’ Association and port operators, said its chief executive officer Saifol Bahri Mohd Shamlan.

In some local ports, Cargo Manifest is still done manually on paper, whereas in ports that do have some form of an electronic version of the shipping document, the formats used are not the same, hence presenting difficulties for shipping companies operating in these ports.

E-Manifest, on the other hand, will be developed on a national and standardised format, making it applicable to all ports nationwide.

“We have started development work on the system, and this will be completed by early next year in time for its first implementation at Port Klang,” Saifol told CompuTimes.

The system, he said, is expected to be implemented in all main ports in the country by end of next year. Other main ports are Penang Port, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Johor Port, Kuantan Port, Bintulu Port, Kuching Port and Kota Kinabalu Port.

Apart from e-Manifest, Dagang Net will focus on a new business segment next year – e-logistics and e-order fulfilment.

“Even though we will be competing against existing players in this segment, we feel that we have a niche as we can extend this service into cross-border trade facilitation such as e-declarations and e-permit, thus providing end-to-end electronic trade and logistics facilitation service to customers,” Saifol said.

Currently, Dagang Net is finalising work in a radio frequency identification (RFID) research with Mitsubishi Research Institute for a Japanese electronics company in Malaysia.

“We will take the experience in this research and venture into the data management services segment of the RFID value chain,” Saifol said, adding that this service will be linked to Dagang Net’s declaration services and data exchange that enables further tracking and consolidation of customers’ cargo information.