'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.