New port management

New port management

The government has finally succeeded in significantly improving the efficiency of Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port through the realignment of the port's management. As Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto reported to President Soeharto on Monday, the port's daily operations are now managed solely by the state-owned PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II port managing company. That means all documents and activities related to cargo and passenger traffic will now be handled by the company. The port administrator is now charged only with coordinating the activities of all government agencies involved in the port's operations.

This is no small achievement. In most countries, even in industrialized ones, bureaucratic rivalry is inherent within the government machinery. Coordination between government entities is most often very difficult as the process always requires the sharing or even surrendering of jurisdiction by one agency to another.

The process of coordination and synchronization of jurisdiction is especially delicate in ports. This is because their operations require the involvement of so many government institutions related to customs, health, quarantine, immigration, public utilities, trade and several other public services, as well as numerous other private entities. No wonder passenger or cargo traffic is often bogged down in delays due to red tape.

As in the case of Tanjung Priok and other seaports in the country, the port administrator is supposed to coordinate all the government services, whereas the port management company is in charge of core operations-- handling cargo and passenger traffic. However, in most ports the two entities are often embroiled in a power game, each wanting to become the top authority in the port area. The bureaucratic rivalry between the two often involves the issue of money because the port administrator is supposed to provide public (non-commercial) services while the port management company executes the commercial function.

The government took the right measure by decisively removing the overlapping of authority at Tanjung Priok, the country's largest ocean gateway. Tanjung Priok, like other major seaports that handle international trade, plays a pivotal role in promoting foreign trade, especially now when Indonesian products lose out to exports from more efficient suppliers. Because the country's export-oriented industries still depend largely on foreign-made basic and intermediate materials, seaports play a very important role not only in delivering exports to international markets in the most efficient manner, but also in bringing in inputs for our domestic factories.

Tanjung Priok's role is especially crucial because Jakarta and its surrounding towns remain the most favorite destinations for new investments.

The improved cargo services at Tanjung Priok as a result of the realignment of the port management is impressive indeed. The port, according to Haryanto, is now capable of handling 3,146 containers a day, exceeding the target of 3,000 containers. Its general cargo throughput also has increased from last year's 49,000 tons a day to 65,000 tons.

Still more encouraging is Haryanto's assertion that President Soeharto has approved similar management realignments at other major seaports in North Sumatra's Belawan, Central Java's Tanjung Emas, East Java's Tanjung Perak and South Sulawesi's Makassar. The President's endorsement and support of the move is indeed essential, given the difficulty in establishing better coordination between various government agencies.