Thai fishermen want licenses extended

Thai fishermen want licenses extended

SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand (Reuters): Thai fishermen hope Indonesia will decide to extend its 1999 cut off date for granting licenses to foreigners to fish in Indonesian waters.

Wanchai Sangsukiam, president of the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association, told Reuters in an interview over the weekend that such a move would help Thai fishermen, and the revenue obtained from selling the licenses could also help Indonesia's ailing economy.

Indonesia's government has said effective from December 31, 1999 foreign-registered fishing vessels would no longer be allowed to fish in Indonesian waters.

Wanchai said he expected to see Indonesia extend the deadline to bring in more foreign currency.

According to the association's data, about 200 of some 1,000- 1,100 Thai fishing vessels in Indonesia will be affected by the ban.

The remainder are joint venture vessels and will be able to continue fishing.

"But they are not only Thai vessels (there); there are also many other countries which catch fish in Indonesia such as Korea and Taiwan so if Indonesia does not extend the license it will lose a big advantage," Wanchai said.

"The foreign vessels have to pay around US$159-290, depending on the type of vessel, per gross registered ton per year. So Indonesia gains a lot of money and I think this income can help (in) its economic crisis," he added.

Normally the vessels which fish on the high seas are between 200-400 gross registered tons, he said.

"I hope to see Indonesia extend the deadline to 2004. Moreover, it (would be) better if Indonesia also reduced the license fee, as our weak currency means we have to pay more in terms of dollar," he said

Indonesia is the major source for Thai overseas fishing. The product, worth about 9.0-10 billion baht per year ($225-250 million), is used as the raw material for the Thai fish processing industry.

This year the association expects the Thai overseas catch in Indonesia to be slightly higher, and some currency-related advantage would apply.

"Because of the weaker rupiah our operating costs decreased (by) around 30 percent as most of our costs are paid in rupiah. The oil price in Indonesia dropped to 2.0 baht per liter compared with 4.20 baht earlier and labor costs were also cheaper," he said.

One baht can now buy about 200 rupiah compared to about 90 before the regional currency turmoil began in mid-1997.