President wants optimization of fishery potentials in EEZ

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday told state-owned firms, private sector businesses and cooperatives to act unitedly to increase efforts to tap the fishery potentials of the country's exclusive economic zones (EEZ).

The President said that alliance among the three economic pillars is essential in coping with the capital and technological shortages and in taking full advantage of the under-utilized fishery zones.

"We should optimize the fishery potencies in the EEZ. Otherwise, the fishing opportunity would be taken by foreign fishing companies," he said in his address at the opening of the joint congress of the Federation of Indonesian Fishermen and the Association of Indonesian Fishing Companies.

The partnership of state-owned companies, private sector enterprises and fishermen's cooperatives could be an effective business arrangement in which the three sectors could take advantage of the country's marine resources, he said.

He said that such cooperation among the three sectors should be based on mutually beneficial arrangements, so that all parties involved would be able to equally gain from the business partnership.

He said increasingly utilizing fishery potentials in the exclusive zones is also important in reducing fishery activities in densely populated coastal areas.

Soeharto said that the concentration of fishery activities in crowded coastal areas has partly resulted in environmental damages not only in the form of pollution but also in the shallowing of the country's seabeds.

He said that the environmental problems in the country's coastal areas also result from the illegal use of explosives and toxic substances for fishing.

Soeharto said that Indonesia, which consists of thousands of small and big islands, has the potential to produce around 6.7 tons of fish per year from its over six million square kilometers of sea areas.

He, however, said that the country is only able to benefit from half of the marine resources due to the lack of modern fishing fleets in the country.

Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said in his address that the relationship between fishermen and fishing companies is still weak.

"The relationship between the two groups has not been so smooth and each party often complains about the other's activities," the minister told reporters following the official opening of the two-day congress.

He said that the proposed partnership between state-owned companies, private firms and fishermen's cooperatives would be able not only to resolve differences among them but also to forge a stronger front in reducing the activities of foreign fishing vessels in Indonesian waters.

Addressing the congress, which is expected to formulate the direction of development programs in the marine sector, were Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya, Navy Chief Tanto Koeswanto and State Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita. (hen)