'Bangka-Belitung has great potential'

'Bangka-Belitung has great potential'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The development program in Bangka-Belitung province should be
oriented to the empowerment of small-scale enterprises and the
improvement of human resources to enable it to catch up with
other provinces, says an expert.

Laurence A. Manullang, a professor at the IBEK Institute of
Economy and Business (STIE IBEK), said the new province had great
potential in the economic sector but it was running out of
professionals to explore its natural resources.

"Bangka-Belitung is rich not only in tin, but also
agricultural and marine products, sand and granite. It has also
hundreds of small islets with beautiful coastal areas that have
yet to be developed for tourism," he said in a discussion on the
province's potential here on Tuesday.

The 4,800-square kilometer new province, which was separated
from its mother province, South Sumatra, on Nov. 21, 2000, has
tourism potential because it has a strategic position on the
Malacca Strait and borders Singapore and Malaysia, the
Philippines, Japan and South Korea.

So far, the government has exploited the tin deposits and
developed a (white) pepper agribusiness but has yet to touch the
fisheries, granite, tourism and sand sectors.

Besides, the province's waters are also home to more than 700
ships loaded with antiques, which sank hundreds of years ago.
"This will attract foreign antiques hunters to the province," he
said.

Manullang, who recently conducted a survey in the province,
said that the provincial administration should give top priority
to the education sector because almost 80 percent of the
approximately 900,000 population were either graduates or
dropouts from elementary or junior high school.

According to him, besides building more vocational and high
schools, the provincial administration should establish many
training centers in numerous programs to help improve the quality
of human resources.

"Most people earn their living from fishing but they are still
using traditional technology so that they can't improve their
daily or monthly income," he said, citing that the per capita
income had reached only US$160 (Rp 1.6 million) per year.

Fishermen, who constitute two-thirds of the population, should
be given a credit scheme to enable them to buy modern fishing
technology and explore the province's maritime resources, he
said.

"The province's waters are rich with numerous kinds of fish
that are not found in other provinces and the province can be
exploited for its export commodities, besides tin and white
pepper," he said.

Manullang said STIE IBEK, which has a new campus in the
provincial capital of Pangkal Pinang, had launched a research and
development program to help develop agribusiness and tourism
within the province.

"The research and development program has met with a positive
response from people in the province because they can learn new
skills and hence increase their income," he said.