Maritime sector has played a critical role for the growth and development of the Malaysia in facilitating global trade. Malaysia rely on the sector for the import and export of goods as around 90% of the nation trade is carried through maritime transportation. Although there are increasing in trade performance, Malaysian maritime industry is still facing a hard times to safeguard Malaysia's economic interests and to retain its competitive advantage as a leading maritime nation. Therefore, this paper aims to identify, analyses and evaluate the factors that influencing Malaysian maritime industry in remaining sustainable in global trade. In order to explain how the influencing factors affect the Malaysian maritime industry, a systematic hierarchical structure was developed. Then, by employed Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique, the priorities among various criteria was determined through the judgments of experts using a set of scales. The results of this study will assist the shipping entities to cope with those challenges and for Malaysia maritime sector to remain a key enabler of international trade.

The Straits of Malacca and Singapore is without hesitation, a vital sea lane of communication with the geographical advantage of linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Geographically, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore is shallow and fairly narrow on its eastern part and has created one of the most important traffic choke points in the world. Being a crucial sea-lane has experience the Straits with high density of vessel traffic. The increase in shipping activities has risen the challenge in safety of navigation and marine environmental protection problem which generally end up with huge financial losses for the seafarers and damages to the marine environment. Owing significant limitations in the geographical landscape, this article has primary objectives to examine how navigational safety and marine environment can be effectively protect using existing regulatory instruments. This article provides a review and analysis of existing laws and regulations to assess the status of navigational safety for marine environmental protection in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. The article also evaluates potential strategies to this problem using insights from literature. The article finds out that the littoral States to the Straits of Malacca and Singapore should adopt more forward-looking perspective in the formulation of legal measures to enhance navigational safety for marine environmental protection. The article finally suggests the potential strategies for navigational safety and marine environmental protection in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. This will help in setting priorities for future efforts in improving navigational safety for marine environmental protection with regard to international and regional initiatives.