Marine Electronic Highway Demonstration

The coastal marine and natural resources of south-east Asia's Straits of Malacca and Singapore are estimated to have a net economic value of over $5 billion, which make it one of the most valuable international sea lanes in the world. The Marine Electronic Highway (MEH) Demonstration Project is the first phase of a potential tow-phase MEH Development Program that is designed to help the littoral countries conserve sustainable use of resources. The Program's economic development goal is to improve the efficiency, safety and environmental sustainability of marine transport through the Straits. Its global environment goal is conservation of the Strait's biologically rich marine and coastal ecosystems. The MEH Program would achieve these goals by: a) reducing the frequency of ship collisions in the Strait's congested sea lanes; b) making marine navigation in the Straits safer and more cost effective; c) deterring illegal bilge water and other ship waste releases, and d) establishing a MEH-supported fund to co-finance both the MEH system and coastal and marine resource conservation in the Straits. If the Straits MEH Program achieves regional objectives and goals, it should stimulate extension of the MEH to the entire Persian Gulf to Far East shipping route and its replication on other major world shipping routes. The objective of the first phase of the MEH Program - the Marine Electronic Highway Demonstration Project - is to determine if a MEH system for the Straits of Malacca and Singapore is economically and environmentally justified and is financially sustainable.