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.