RI pushes for standard port charge

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's delegation will strive for the application of similar tariffs on passenger liners and freight services and port charges in the Growth Area of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, an official said on Saturday.

"The differences of port service charges are hampering the flow of trade between the countries grouped in the East ASEAN growth area forum," Freddy Rorimpandey, the chief of the North Sulawesi office of the Ministry of Transportation, was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said that port charges will be one of the topics to be discussed in the two-day official meeting of the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippine East ASEAN Growth Area in Zamboanga, in the Philippines, this week.

The forum was established to promote business cooperation between the countries involved, especially territories that directly border on one another: Brunei; Mindanao in the Philippines; the states of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia; and the provinces of Maluku, North and South Sulawesi and Kalimantan in Indonesia.

Freddy said that many shipping businessmen in Bitung, North Sulawesi, have complained about the high service charges at the Mindanao port in the southern part of the Philippines.

He said that the facilities at the Bitung port are adequate to handle exports to Mindanao, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, China, South Korea and the United states.

Freddy added that two ships, each with a 700-ton capacity, have now been linking the Bitung port and General Santos town in the southern Philippines twice a month.(04)