Govt raises quota on ship imports

JAKARTA (JP): The government has raised its quota for the import of fishing boats to 320 a year from 240 a year to meet high domestic demand.

Director General of Fisheries F.X. Murdjijo said the increased quota would meet local fishing companies' orders.

The government recently eased restrictions on the import of fishing boats by allowing fishing companies to procure 1,000 new or second-hand fishing boats in the next four years.

The government had totally banned the import of fishing boats to protect local shipbuilders.

Murdjijo said the increased quota would not affect the total number of fishing boats imported.

"The rise in the quota will only speed up the time to import the 1,000 ships from four years to three years," he said.

According to Ministerial Decree No. 508/1996, signed by the minister of agriculture in July last year, the government allows local fishing companies to import new steel long liners weighing between 100 gross tons (GT) and 350 GT, tuna and skipjack purse seiners of between 100 GT and 800 GT, fish and shrimp trawlers and squid-jiggers of between 100 Gt and 300 GT, and fish-lading vessels of more than 100 GT.

Production

"The decree is expected to increase national fish production by 5 percent, or as much as 160,000 tons," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Murdjijo said that many local fishing firms had applied to import old or new boats from foreign companies since the decree. But he did not say how many.

"We are still evaluating all the fishing firms who applied for import allowances and we will announce the results this month," he said.

The import licenses would be granted gradually over the year, he said.

The decree stated that companies could only import boats if domestic production was inadequate, if they had a fishing- business license and if they used the boats themselves.

It also stated that fishing firms which had partnership programs with small fishing operations and cooperatives had priority to purchase foreign boats.

Priority was also given to those who had bought at least two types of boat, invested in cold-storage, canning factories and shipping infrastructure and had strong commitment to buy new locally manufactured boats.

Local fishing companies have long complained that the price of locally made fishing boats was higher than those made by foreign companies.

Murdjijo warned local fishing-boat builders not to take advantage of the decree by increasing their prices. (04)