Prabowo: Indonesia ready for major investments in blue economy - Kuala Lumpur

President Prabowo Subianto stated that the government will carry out massive investments in the marine economy or blue economy, in line with the increasing global need for animal protein. According to information from the Indonesian Government Communication Agency (Bakom) received in Jakarta on Saturday, the President assessed that Indonesia has been blessed with vast marine wealth and therefore it needs to be optimised for the welfare of the people. “The world now greatly needs fish protein, therefore, the government that I lead, we will massively develop fisheries and marine sectors,” said Prabowo when inspecting the Merah Putih Fishermen Village (KNMP) in South Leato, Gorontalo, today. “We must be grateful, and we must now invest massively,” he added. According to Prabowo, investments in the blue economy must start by strengthening the role of fishermen as the spearhead of the national fisheries sector. One of them is through the Merah Putih Fishermen Village (KNMP) programme, which is expected to expand fishermen’s access to decent fisheries facilities and infrastructure. He said the government targets 1,386 KNMPs to operate across Indonesia this year and will continue to build fishing villages every year. “And next year, we will build another 1,000 (KNMPs). And so on, every year 1,000, 1,000, 1,000, the whole of Indonesia has 12,000 fishing villages. This is a big job,” said President Prabowo. In addition, the Head of State also said that the government will distribute aid of 1,582 fishing vessels so that Indonesian fishermen, where the management scheme will be handed over through fishermen’s cooperatives. “Later we will give boats. There are small boats, medium ones, and large boats. We want not foreign boats taking fish from our seas, we want our people to take them,” said Prabowo Subianto.