The government to realign fishery policies, Soeharto says

JAKARTA (JP): The government will realign its fishery policies in order to further develop the country's agricultural sector, says President Soeharto.

"Our key strategies to attain this objective will be the expansion of agribusinesses and the people's fishery sector to be achieved in sustainable and integrated management," Soeharto said at the opening of the second national congress of The Indonesian Association of Fishermen (HNSI) yesterday.

"We expect to see domestic fishery production in the coming five years grow by 5.2 percent every year, so that fishery production will reach 4.6 million tons in 1998," he said.

Soeharto noted that fishery production grew to 3.6 million tons last year from 1.1 million tons in 1968. During the same period, annual per capita fish consumption expanded to 17 kilograms from 10 kg.

Export earnings of this sector, he said, escalated to about US$100 million in 1993, indicating a more than 75-fold increase in 25 years."

Soeharto, however, expressed concern over the obstacles facing fishery development.

He said that most fishing activities, for example, are concentrated on seashores near densely populated areas, which tend to be polluted, while at the same time other "fish-rich" areas, which include the country's eastern areas, are ignored.

"This happens because of shortage of capital, lack of human resources, poor application and adoption of the latest technologies and insufficient economic incentives," Soeharto said.

"We have to remember that in spite of the abundance of potential fishery resources, most of our four million fishermen live in poverty, and about 68 percent of them did not even finish primary education," the President said. (hdj)