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)