Deregulating fisheries

Indonesia has 5.8 million square kilometers of sea. It has been estimated that Indonesia's waters are capable of yielding 6.7 million tons of a variety of fish as well as other marine products, although in the past few years only about half that amount has been collected.

This sort of thing has been going on for quite a long time, hampering the fisheries industry and repressing the export earnings of this particular sector. At present there are about 420 processing companies in this sector with a total production capacity of two million tons a year, although actual annual production amounts are only about 30 percent of that total.

It is hoped that the deregulation measures that are expected to be announced on Thursday will be able to solve the existing problems. The fisheries industry could become the prima donna of our export business, replacing other products which are suffering setbacks. Next to agrobusiness, fisheries could become a leading industry.

Hopefully the much awaited deregulation measures will also include a simplification in regulations concerning sailing permits, control, technical requirements, safety, and credit allocation. We hope that the deregulation measures will be able to boost the fisheries industry and that they will be comprehensive in nature.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta