Mysterious containers

Mysterious containers

Bisnis Indonesia in its Aug. 21 edition reported that at least
40 containers of garbage had accumulated at Tanjung Priok Port
over eight years. The port authority alleged having difficulty in
finding the owner or importer because the address of the
consignee was fictitious.

The spokesman of the port authority further alleged that there
were 7.5 million tons of goods and 26 containers containing
various commodities unclaimed at the port.

Inasmuch as during my tenure of office for almost half a
century, I was mostly involved in the export and import business.
When reading this article, I could not help exclaiming: "But this
is preposterous, unthinkable." And to think that this has been
going on for eight years is absurd. But anyway, I can only draw
the following conclusion.

In advanced countries, getting rid of waste or garbage,
especially nuclear or chemical waste, has become a problem. In
this instance, perhaps a European enterprise made good use of an
import regulation in Indonesia, by virtue of which a shipment
which has a value of less than US$5,000 does not need a letter of
credit. And as far as I can remember, an SGS certificate (survey
report) is also not required. A European enterprise would gladly
pay the sea freight for the garbage, and if this continues
indefinitely then I am afraid that Tanjung Priok Port will become
the largest garbage dump in the world. The smart manager of such
an enterprise would be laughing up his sleeve. In this context, I
remember that some time ago a European country shipped nuclear
waste to an Asian country, against a substantial payment of
course.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta