Profiling Malaysian ship registration and seafarers for streamlining future Malaysian shipping governance

ABSTRACT In the globalised maritime transport sector, Malaysian ships and local seafarers play a crucial role in the development of the country’s economy. Therefore, this paper examines Malaysia’s ratification of international maritime conventions, its authorisation of classification societies and its maritime education training centres that have become key elements in influencing local ship registration and the production of seafarers. This paper analyses the current Malaysian ship registration and seafarers, including the existing number of seafarers that are engaged on board Malaysian and foreign ships. In this paper, we present the JALIN (ship registration data) and SDPx (seafarers’ data) systems application, which are developed by the Marine Department Malaysia as data sources, and a descriptive analysis of data using MS-Excel 2010 and Minitab 19. As a result, this paper analysed the Malaysian ship registration and seafarers for streamlining future Malaysian shipping governance in order to identify current potentials and barriers. In addition, this paper provides vital information for Malaysian government strategies concerning seafarers’ management in streamlining future national shipping governance. In addition, this result can serve as big data information to develop effective measures catering to the needs of the Malaysian shipping industry and assist policymakers to make decisions.