Pelindo offered shares in port dispute
Pelindo offered shares in port dispute
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between the city
administration and the central government over the development of
New Port, Governor Sutiyoso has invited state port operator
Pelindo II for a discussion and is offering the company shares in
the new project.
"This is not a power contest. It is about improving the
competitiveness of the existing Tanjung Priok Port to support
export and import activities in the capital ... We (the
administration and the government) must stop fighting about the
matter in the media," he said on Thursday.
"We can discuss the sharing of stakes between the
administration and the government later."
Jakarta will have a 5 percent share in the US$500 million
project, which will be financed by private investor PT Marindo
Bahtera Development.
The project, located on reclaimed land in East Ancol, North
Jakarta, has been opposed by Pelindo, which claim it plans to
construct an integrated port in the same area.
As its legal basis, Jakarta refers to Law No. 34/1999 on
Jakarta administration, which stipulates that the administration
can manage its own port.
On the other hand, Pelindo refers to Government Regulation No.
69/2001 on national ports and argues that the authority to manage
a port lies with the Office of the State Minister of State
Enterprises.
The regulation is currently being reviewed by the Constitution
Court at the request of the Indonesian Association of Provincial
Administrations, of which Sutiyoso is the chairman.
An official with the Office of the State Minister of State
Enterprises in charge of transportation affairs, Bonar Manurung,
said earlier that the minister's office had given the green light
to Pelindo to go ahead with its own plan and disregard the
construction of New Port by the Jakarta administration.
The instruction was backed by House of Representatives
Commission IV for governmental administration affairs, which
urged the administration to suspend its project.
"The project must be delayed until relevant parties learn to
coordinate to avoid overlapping in the port's construction," said
legislator Rosyid Hidayat, who headed the inspection team that
visited the location two weeks ago.
The planned commercial port will share its 15 berths with
warships and patrol vessels of the Navy's Western Fleet.
PT Marindo said the port would be built over six years. The
project will apply Japanese technology to dredge some 486
hectares of the sea bed and reclaim 242 hectares of coastline.
The port will also have a car terminal, a multipurpose
terminal, offices and business/shopping centers.
The project is also expected to be part of a waterfront
project involving the reclamation of around 2,700 hectares of
Jakarta Bay. The reclaimed area is to develop the coastline into
a port, waterfront houses and marinas, hotels, condominiums, an
industrial zone, business centers, massive shopping malls,
offices and recreation sites.
However, the project has received strong opposition from
environmentalists, including State Minister of the Environment
Nabiel Makarim, who warn that the project will worsen floods in
the coastal areas as well as have an adverse impact on the
ecosystem of the north coast and Jakarta Bay.