Indonesian maritime issues get greater attention<\/p>\n
Jan R. Scheele, Maritime Consultant, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Is empowerment of the maritime transportation services the
\nonly medicine the government is willing to inject in the ailing
\nnational maritime industry? Which quality assurances are built in
\nto guarantee successful results and in how far will this
\nempowerment heal the current ailments of this so long neglected
\nindustry sector?<\/p>\n
The undersigned wishes to comment on the publication in The
\nJakarta Post on Dec. 9 by Ronald Nangoi, titled: RI maritime
\nissues get greater attention: Better late than never?.<\/p>\n
Allow me to first and foremost question the first statement
\nmade by Nangoi \"Indonesia being the largest maritime country in
\nthe world\". Closer to the truth would be the following statement:
\n\"Indonesia is one of the largest Archipelago's in the world,
\nconsisting of more than 17,000 islands, of which more than 6,000
\nare inhabited, covering an area as large as Europe from Iceland
\nin the North West to Turkey in the South East. By nature this
\nwould have made Indonesia one of the strongest Maritime Nations
\nin the world, unfortunately it currently is not\".<\/p>\n
An example is the fact that less than 7 percent of the
\ntransportation of all domestic inter island cargo volumes are
\nbeing traded by non -- Indonesian flag vessels.<\/p>\n
Past questionable government policies (Habibie's scrapping
\npolicy and failed new building programs) have added to the
\ncurrent poor state of affairs of this industry sector, that if
\nwell facilitated by the government and managed by the private
\nsector, could contribute significant to the country's national
\nincome as rightfully mentioned by Nangoi, instead of suffering
\npresently opportunity losses of roughly more than US$12 billion a
\nyear in foreign exchange.<\/p>\n
Maritime trade in general is the oldest international or
\nglobal business, governed by the earliest examples of
\ninternational (trade) laws, amended over time as currently
\napplicable. I agree with the mentioned current weaknesses and the
\ngovernments inconsistency in law enforcement, but these are not
\nnew facts, for the past 10 years the Chairman of the Indonesian
\nShip owners Association (INSA) has consistently brought these
\nshortcomings in front of the government footlights, unfortunately
\nto no avail.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's flag ship carrier PT. Djakarta Lloyd is an
\noverstaffed non performing, loss making Government Shipping
\nCompany, to be kept alive by the government for the past 15
\nyears. State owned Inter Island Passenger Shipping Line PT. Pelni
\nis covered in debt, and does not make any profits. The only
\nIndonesian ship owners who are surviving are the ones who
\nregistered their vessels under other flags than the Indonesian
\nflag, hence the relative small number of ships under the national
\nflag.<\/p>\n
Nangoi stated that it is part of Minister Kwik Kian Gie dream
\n\"that in the years to come, the shipping business grows, in which
\nthousands of vessels largely under Indonesian flag, are getting
\ncrowded in domestic territorial waters\". I may confidently state
\nthat under the current laws, regulations, government policies,
\neven through the \"empowerment\", whatever that means and however
\never the implementation (and action plans?) Your Excellency, keep
\non dreaming.<\/p>\n
Are their solutions to the problems on offer, to make the
\nminister's dream come true? The answer is yes, but to tackle the
\nproblems seriously needs a broad governmental platform of
\nawareness, intergovernmental cooperation, knowledge, vision and
\npolitical will.<\/p>\n
At present there does not exist a cohesive national (maritime)
\nshipping policy, which should be fundamental in supporting the
\nnational economic and social development objectives.<\/p>\n
Decentralization, privatization, restructuring, deregulation
\nand private sector participation in policy development and
\nformulation should be the point of departure and the central
\nthrust of overall government policy.<\/p>\n
In the recent past, government attention has been highly
\nfocussed on projects, not institutions or policies -- which in a
\ndecentralized Indonesia are now even more important.<\/p>\n
In closing I would offer to Kwik the suggestion to, as a first
\npriority to establish in cooperation with the minister of
\ntransportations and the private maritime sector, a National
\nMaritime Committee, charged with the responsibility to formulate
\na \"National Maritime (shipping) Policy\", covering in general the
\nports and shipping sub sectors in Indonesia, addressing all
\nfacets, including but not limited to:<\/p>\n
o macro and micro economical matters<\/p>\n
o Financial matters<\/p>\n
o Technical matters<\/p>\n
o Sociological matters (employment, human resources, education
\nand training)<\/p>\n
o International, Regional and National legislation<\/p>\n
o National Maritime Strategy for implementation<\/p>\n
Initiating this initiative might be the start on the difficult
\nroad to a healthy National Maritime Sector, which will at the end
\ncontribute substantially to the national development and placing
\nIndonesia on the world maritime map, where it given its
\nstrategically geographical position and total length of coast
\nline should have been.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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