Govt to tighten permits for foreign fishing vessels

JAKARTA (JP): The government said on Tuesday that it would soon issue new fishing regulations to tighten up the regulatory scheme governing the operation of foreign fishing vessels, in an effort to curb illegal foreign fishing.

Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries spokesman Zukafril said that the foreign fishing permits issued under the new regulations would be more difficult to manipulate or misuse.

"To date, many foreign fishing vessels have abused or falsified their permits," Zukafril told reporters during a seminar on the Indonesian fishing industry that was held by the daily Bisnis Indonesia.

He said that under the new government regulations, foreign fishing vessels would only be allowed to operate under joint venture arrangements with local partners.

Foreign fishing vessels operating here must also sell 30 percent of their catch to the local fish processing industry, he added.

"This will provide them (foreign fishing companies) with the right incentives to invest in Indonesia's fishing industry," Zukafril explained.

According to him, foreign fishing companies would then be encouraged to invest in local fish processing plants.

To reduce the manipulation of fishing permits, Zukafril went on, foreign vessels must also have their permit numbers painted on their hulls.

Zukafril said that in order to control the activities of foreign fishing vessels, they would be required to have a transponder on board that would allow the government to monitor their routes.

The government recently announced that it was developing such a monitoring system, under which all ships, including local vessels of more than 2,000 dead weight tons, must equip themselves with transponders next year.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sarwono Kusumaatmadja has said that the system would employ satellite and radar monitoring similar to that in use in Peru, Morocco and India.

Sarwono estimated that the monitoring system would cost between US$3 million and $10 million excluding the price of the transponders, which must be purchased by the owners of the vessels.

According to him, several foreign companies had made bids to run the system, including Argos from the Philippines, and Imarsat and Racal from Britain.

Sarwono has long complained that the rampant poaching by foreign fishing vessels was causing the state losses of about $2 billion per year.

Up until May of this year, the government reported that fish exports had generated total earnings of $1.9 billion, and might hit $3 billion by the year's end.

The seminar also discussed the creation of what the government calls Indonesia Incorporated, which is the concept of marketing Indonesian fish products under the coordination of one institution.

"We need to combine our strengths to be able to penetrate the international market, individual companies can no longer just rely on themselves," he explained.

Under the concept, fish processing companies like the publicly listed PT Dharma Samudra Fishing Industries would join forces with other firms to market their products under one brand name.

Zukafril said that these companies have responded well to the government's proposal and were now fleshing out the technical details. However, he did not say how many companies would become involved in the plan.

The government, he added, would issue guidelines next month for the implementation of the scheme. (bkm)