PERFORMANE OF THE SEA TRANSPORTATION SECTOR STILL RATED AS LOW

The National Maritime Sector still treasured great potentials so far not fully exploited especially to consider Indonesia’s strategic position between the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean and the Asian continent and Australian continent – supposedly the maritime sector had enough Government’s attention. The Government’s serious attention was called for to manage this sector to support sustainable economic growth.

Chairman of the Aquaculture Society who was also maritime expert Rochimin Dahuri stated in Jakarta on Monday [20/10] rated that performance of Indonesia’s Sea Transportation Sector was behind other countries whose marine potentials was low. In spite of some notable progress, biggest archipelago was still low,

According to Rokhimin low performance Indonesia’s Sea Transportation sector was indicated by poor implementation of the scrapping of above 20 years old ship policy since 1987 to 2010. Indonesia was also wasting forex of USD 15 billion/year for paying foreign ships serving import-export and inter insular connectivity. This was not mention containers’ operation management which was problematic. Per container transportation cost from Jakarta to Surabaya was twice as much as from Pontianak to Jakarta was Rp. 1,500/kg while cargo transportation cost from China to Indonesia was only Rp900/kg.

According to Rochimin, performance of the Directorate of Sea Transportation was rated as low because the national armada was low in terms of size, quality, productivity, efficiency, competitiveness and low harbor quality compared to market potential of goods and passengers. Besides, Indonesian harbors were uncompetitive in terms of hardware and software such as indicated by Tanjung Priok and Tanjung Perak international seaport which did not realize the sabotage principle as written in Law no 27/2008 on shipping.

Rochimin stated that no country in the world would release their national in the sea as they were aware of the rich potentials at sea, as they were aware of the rich potentials at sea, from bio life potentials to mineral resources like gold, oil, and gas. Big countries like the USA and China even took the initiative to strengthen their sea security and build strong armada to command over their water territories.

According to ex-Minister of Maritime and Fishery, Indonesian seas treasured wealth potentials for welfare and prosperity. Indonesia possessed Exclusive Economic Zone [ZEE] that stretched over 2.4 million km2 with various potential natural resources ready to be explored.

However he admitted that as a developing country of low technological capacity to explore and exploit undersea wealth, Indonesia could collaborated with other countries to explore the sea. He elaborated that the sea potentials could be developed in various sectors especially the hooked fish sector, cultivated fishery, fish processing, harbor services, exploration and exploitation of oceanic resources especially in ZEE zones, coastal forest areas, trading, shipping and marine tourism.

In tune with Rokhimin, Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry [KADIN] of the Sea and Fishery sector, Yugi Prayitno mentioned that the handicaps in sea exploration effort in Indonesia were among others limited budget for the Sea exploration sector. For comparison he pointed out that state’s budget for the fishery sector was only Rp. 6 – Rp. 7 trillion per year while allocated budget for the agricultural sector was Rp. 20 trillion/year. (SS)

Business News - October 24, 2014