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.