"We have submitted our application to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. It is expected to respond to our request soon," the executive told Mail Money.

Dagang Net's concession allows it to run an exclusive electronic linkage to the Malaysian Customs on matters involving import and export declaration and clearance.

The 15-year concession expires on Sept 24 this year.

While Dagang Net declined to comment on its chances of extending its exclusive concession, the company has a strong chance of seeing the contract extended because of the huge sums of money it had invested to upgrade the infrastructure.

Recently it had given out a RM300,000 contract to a consulting firm to -help develop and execute a RM20 million three-year technology upgrade plan.

Much of the money will go towards acquiring new software, hardware and for the setting up of a disaster recovery centre, but there will also be a sizeable allocation for training.

Dagang Net's electronic clearing systems enable ports to benefit from the faster turnaround time, lower document error rate, reduced document processing time which translates into significant cost savings for the ports.