Port management, customs office to boost services
JAKARTA (JP): PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II, the state-owned firm which manages the Tanjung Priok port and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise yesterday assured importers that they would continue improving services at the harbor.
"Pelabuhan and the customs office will improve coordination and simplify procedures to help expedite the flow of imported goods at Tanjung Priok port," the port management company's president, Amir Harbani, told reporters after chairing a closed- door three-hour meeting with electronics importers yesterday.
The meeting was attended by port and customs officials, executives of the Indonesian Importers' Association, the Indonesian Freight and Forwarder Association and the Indonesian Electronics Association and officials from the Directorate General of Sea Transportation.
Executives of electronics companies PT Samsung Metrodata Electronics, PT National Gobel, PT Sony Electronics Indonesia, PT Maspion and PT Sharp Yasonta Indonesia also participated in yesterday's meeting.
Amir said that a number of meeting participants raised complaints over poor handling at the container terminal due to complicated bureaucratic procedures and poor berthing schedules, which have often caused congestions and affected their business activities.
"We will make inventories of the customers' complaints and try to make improvements," he said.
According to Amir, Pelabuhan agreed to provide more locations within the port for unloading goods.
"There are many locations (depots) within the port, with a total capacity of about 10,500 twenty equivalent units (TEUs) and the container yard with a capacity of 24,000 TEUs," he said.
"At the moment, the occupancy rate in the depots within the forwarding ring is just 40 percent and we will allow a maximum of 70 percent," he added.
Amir also said that the Directorate General of Customs and Excise also agreed yesterday to provide better service by simplifying its procedures.
He said such a meeting would be held periodically, probably once every two or three months, to create better services. (icn)