Competitiveness of seaport is determined by a range of advantages that was earned by the seaport to attract their respective customers. Competitiveness is essential for seaport to make tactical plans, to maintain and improve their attractiveness among the clients. The imbalance of hinterland connectivity in Malaysian seaports between road and rail affects the efficiency of Malaysian seaports to be at the optimum level of competitiveness. Besides, the increasing of vessel capacity in the world affects the efficiency of seaport operations to accommodate larger container ships. However, nowadays the trends of seaport competitiveness are changing due to the dynamic nature of maritime business. Hence, analysis on the trend on seaport competitiveness is very crucial to plan and execute the operational strategy to achieve optimum benefits from the trade activities. Nevertheless, most of the researches focused on competitiveness trend in the world but no specific research has been conducted at Malaysian seaports in particular. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the evolution of seaport competitiveness in Malaysian seaport from 1970 to 2019 and propose a competitiveness cluster for Malaysian seaport to ease the policy revisiting procedure for future development. Systematic Literature Review (SLR) has been employed in this paper to develop a comprehensive competitiveness cluster for Malaysian seaports to understand the current trend of competitiveness among Malaysian seaports in comparison to the global trend as a key preparation for future demand. IT application, seaport services, supply chain, government policy, connectivity, availability, hinterland accessibility, inland terminal cost, transportation network, operation efficiency and seaport cost are the key components of competitiveness in Malaysian seaports from 1970 until 2019. Findings revealed that there are three clusters in Malaysian seaport competitiveness which are shipping services, seaport and terminal, and government policy.

Transport sector activities are the major sources of pollutants to the atmosphere and natural environment. Seaports contribute significantly to the cause of pollution in the water and water front areas they are located. Like other industrial nations and regions, maritime sector in Malaysia continues to grow and expand to facilitate global and regional trade and as a maritime-related activities result have proliferated in sea and shore. This has exposed seaports to a growing pressure and posed challenges to operate in an environmentally friendly manner. This paper aims to classify environmental issues caused by shipping and seaport activities and propose strategies to reduce environmental issues in seaports at east coast of peninsular Malaysia. Using quantitative research design, data was collected through a survey questionnaire from personnel at east coast Malaysian seaports. The result of this paper indicates that garbage dumping, air pollution, maintenance waste, dust, noise pollution, bilge water, dredging operations and oil spill are the most important issues contributed by seaports activities. This paper suggested several strategies that can be implemented to mitigate environmental issues at east coast of Malaysia including Kuantan, Kemaman and Kerteh seaports.