The role of seaports in regional development in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia: An evaluation through an exploratory factor analysis

This paper explores the concept of regional development by utilising the benefits generated by seaports. The east coast of peninsular Malaysia is the focus region of this research because of the imbalance of regional development compared to the west coast. Integration amongst multimodal transportation, freight corridors, seaports and transport facilities has remained underutilised as a result of the lack of policy integrating seaports as the main component in regional development. Further, the preparation of seaports in east coast peninsular Malaysia to meet the requirements of the international agenda especially the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become the main motivation for this study. The paper explores the main factors in seaport systems that influence regional development in the east coast region and examines the implications of seaport systems on regional development and vice versa, as well as proposes development strategies for the growth of seaports in this particular region. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) has been employed to achieve the proposed objectives in this paper. The outcome shows two main impacts seaports have on regional development, namely geo-economics development and social development. Furthermore, the progress made in the regional development might improve the dynamism of seaports and could transform the seaport as a maritime logistics hub in this region. Finally, maritime sustainable strategy, seaport integration strategy and administrative strategy can be implemented in seaports at east coast region for the continual development.