Foreign fishing ships to operate in Indonesian water

Foreign fishing ships to operate in Indonesian water

JAKARTA (JP): The government plans to remove the ban on
foreign fishing ships operating in Indonesian waters, an official
of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said on
Tuesday.

Zukafril, spokesman for the ministry, said foreign fishing
ship operators would no longer need to form a joint venture with
local partners to operate in Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone
under a new regulation now being prepared by the ministry.

"We expect to complete the regulation by October," he told The
Jakarta Post

Zukafril, however, said that foreign fishing ships would be
allowed to operate in Indonesian waters after obtaining a permit
from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

He said foreign fishing vessels would be required to pay an
annual fee of about US$100,000 to enable them to operate in the
country.

According to him, the plan to change the new licensing
procedure had received a positive response from major fishing
companies in Japan, China, Korea, Spain and France.

The government would use the money, raised from the issuance
of permits, to upgrade fishing infrastructure throughout the
country, to train fishermen, and to finance fishery research, he
said.

He also said that an intergovernmental meeting would be held
within the next two weeks to further discuss the plan.

Zukafril added that, along with the new permit, the government
would require foreign fishing vessels to use transponders on
board to allow the government to monitor their fishing
activities.

"The transponders will allow us know who is conducting legal
fishing and who is not," he said.

The government has completed the development of such a
monitoring system, under which all ships, including local vessels
of more than 2,000 dead weight tons, must equip themselves with
transponders this year.

According to him, about 3,000 to 4,000 foreign fishing ships
operate in Indonesian waters every year, inflicting an annual
loss of about $2 billion to the government.

Indonesia only catches about 3.7 million tons of fish a year
from the potential annual catch of 7.9 million tons of fish,
worth $31.9 billion.

The country's annual catch is below that of China and Japan,
which annually produce 5.3 million tons and 4.7 million tons of
fish, respectively.(05)