RI's sea transportation needs improvement: Expert

BANDUNG (JP): Sea transportation in Indonesia is less popular than ground or air transportation despite the fact that the archipelagic country has more than 13,000 islands, an expert says.

Ofyar Z. Tamin of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) said in an interview with The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that this also contradicted the fact that most of the Indonesian people are in the low income bracket.

"The development of sea transportation has been slower than that of air and ground. Why do we develop an open-sky policy that will benefit the rich? Sea transportation, which serves mostly poor people, does need serious attention," he said.

The sea transportation system and the development of its infrastructure have been centralized in Java, he said. "Furthermore our sea transportation system focuses on the transport of goods, instead of people as most of the sea ports were built in areas which are rich in natural resources."

"It's time for the government 'to restructure' the system, build more sea ports and purchase more vessels," he said. "The implementation of Law No. 22/1999 on regional autonomy makes it opportune to develop a new sea transportation system now."

Ofyar's colleague, Agus Salim Ridwan, shared his opinion, saying that the current paradigm of sea transportation has yet to bring about an improvement in people's mobility.

The sea transportation system developed by the government had been based on economic and regional concepts, and state administrative policies, said Agus Salim Ridwan, also from ITB, during a two-day seminar here last week.

"This has resulted in the sea transportation network being centralized in Java, mainly focusing on transporting goods, not people,"

Decentralization of sea transportation is a must, he said. "Centralization has hampered the development of seaports in several regions. The sea transportation system has also become a key cause for the economic and social disparity between Java and the other islands."

The sea transportation network has also improperly utilized the archipelagic marine potential, he said. "The potential has instead become hurdles."

Indonesia has more than 13,000 islands and 80 percent of its territory or 7.9 million square kilometers, is water.

Judging from this fact, Agus said, an appropriate sea transportation system should be formulated to hasten progress and development of the islands.

"The government must change its policy and paradigm on sea transportation. In the eastern part of the country, the primary purpose of sea transportation should be to connect people living in remote regions to the more developed areas to improve their economic status." he said.

He also said that the Indonesian sea transportation network should anticipate the Asia-Pacific economic growth by emphasizing the expansion of strategic seaports, including, Belawan, Batam, Panjang, Bojonegoro, Tanjung Priok, Tanjung Emas, Tanjung Perak, Makassar, Banjarmasin, Benoa, Bitung, Ambon, Sorong, Biak and Jayapura. "Our sea transportation network must also aim to establish links with Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East through open ports." (25/sur)