Govt to regulate sea cargo rule
JAKARTA (JP): High rates of taxes, levies and lending interest have discouraged investors from operating cargo vessels carrying the Indonesian flag, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said yesterday.
"Out of the total vessels transporting the country's exports and imports, only 3.6 percent use the Indonesian flag, while the other 96.4 percent carry foreign flags," he told reporters after delivering a speech at a seminar on "Tourism, Telecommunications and Transportation & AFTA 2000".
He said that out of the ships carrying foreign flags, 15 percent are owned by Indonesian companies based in other countries.
Therefore, Haryanto said, his office has proposed to the Ministry of Finance that they revise tax rates on vessels operated by Indonesian-based firms.
He acknowledged that Indonesian shipping companies have also complained about Indonesia's high interest rates, which reach about 18 percent per annum.
"In Singapore, for instance, interest rates are only about two percent a year," he said.
Haryanto also said that the government will continue to improve services at the country's seaports, to anticipate the increasing flow of goods after the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement in 2003.
He explained that during the current Sixth Five Year Development Plan period, the government is constructing and developing 131 seaports, of which 16 will have container terminals.
Several dry ports will also be ready soon to support cargo shippings, including those in Bandung (West Java), Solo (Central Java) and Cirebon (West Java), Jember (East Java), Palembang (South Sumatra) and Tebing Tinggi (North Sumatra).
He also said that a number of Indonesia's airports will be modernized, or relocated to anticipate the boom of the country's tourist industry in the Seventh Five Year Development Plan period, when Indonesia expects the industry to be the main foreign exchange earner.
Tourism
Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave told the seminar that the country may fail to attract more than six million tourists per annum by the end of the sixth plan period due to a lack of adequate infrastructure, such as airports and hotels.
Last year, more than four million foreign tourists visited Indonesia, indicating a 17.72 percent increase from 3.4 million in 1993. Indonesia, which received US$4.7 billion from the sector in 1994, expects to earn more than $5 billion in revenues from some 4.65 million overseas visitors this year.
The government has also set a target to attract 6.5 million visitors per annum, with a total spending of $8.9 billion by 1998 and more than 10 million foreign visitors per annum by 2003, bringing in at least $12 billion. (icn)