France provides soft loan to curb illegal fishing<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Indonesian and French governments signed on Monday an
\nagreement on the financing of a project to curb rampant illegal
\nfishing in Indonesian waters by foreign vessels.<\/p>\n
The French Embassy in Indonesia said in a statement that the
\nagreement had been signed by the French ambassador Herve Ladsous
\nand the director general for economic affairs at the Ministry of
\nForeign Affairs, Makarim Wibisono.<\/p>\n
Under the agreement, the embassy said, the French government
\nwould grant a soft loan worth 9.38 million euros (US$8.23
\nmillion) to help Indonesia in implementing a Fishing Vessel
\nMonitoring System (VMS), a satellite-based technology developed
\nby French company CLS Argos, a subsidiary of the French Space
\nAgency (CNES).<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the agreement, Indonesia will pay back the
\nloan over 20 years with a five-year grace period and interest of
\n2.35 percent per year.<\/p>\n
Using the VMS technology, the Ministry of Fishing and Maritime
\nAffairs will be able to track down the movement of fishing
\nvessels which illegally enter the country's waters, the embassy
\nsaid adding that major fishing countries like Peru, Russia, and
\nJapan use similar technology.<\/p>\n
CLS Argos, which is to collaborate with THALES Tracs in
\ninstalling the technology, will transfer its transmitter
\ntechnology to Indonesia and set up a data center to be manned by
\nIndonesians to process all the data, it said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, American technology firm Lockheed Martin and local
\nfirm InfoAsia Group announced they were also seeking to sell VMS
\ntechnology to the ministry.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear if both these firms still have the
\nopportunity of selling their products to the ministry.<\/p>",
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