U.S. to help RI in protecting trade against terrorism

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United States will send three security experts to Indonesia this month to assist in upgrading security at seaports and airports to protect the trade of goods against terrorism, a senior official at the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

Rifana Erni, the director general of domestic trade at the ministry, said the three experts, who arrive on March. 17, would oversee the implementation of security measures at a number of seaports and airports.

"This is part of our commitment in implementing the STAR initiative," Erni told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

She is referring to the Secure Trade in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Region (STAR) policy, initiated by the U.S. government last year.

"We really support the STAR initiative but we don't have the money to upgrade or buy the new technology for the security measures. That's why we have asked the U.S government to help Indonesia," Erni said.

The U.S. is Indonesia's biggest export market, accounting for 16 percent of total export sales.

Indonesia's main exports to the U.S. include garments, textiles, footwear and shellfish. Imports from the U.S. consist mainly of agricultural products, such as cotton, wheat and corn.

Indonesia has about 108,000 kilometers of coastline, the longest in the region.

"Our security at seaports and airports is still very limited compared with other APEC members," Erni said.

"We have to upgrade security to meet STAR's standards," she said.

Top officials from the APEC region agreed to implement the STAR initiative during the two days of the APEC conference in Bangkok last week.

The 21 APEC countries have agreed to work hard to secure the flow of goods and people through measures which protect cargo, ships engaged in international voyages, international aviation and also people in transit.

Budi Dharmadi, the director of the inspection of goods and services at the ministry, said that the U.S. experts would inspect the security at a number of seaports and airports, including Tanjung Priok and Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta, Belawan port and Polonia Airport in Medan, and Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali.

"They will also visit Surabaya, Batam and Bintan," Budi said.

The team will also meet with several top officials at the Ministry of Transportation, airports and seaports.

Fear of terrorism has been on rise in the aftermath of a series of bomb blasts across the region.

The two highest profile terrorist attacks of recent years -- the attack on the World Trade Center and the Bali nightclub bombings -- happened in APEC nations.

Last year's APEC summit in Mexico, in which the U.S. made the Secure Trade initiative for the first time, took place only just two weeks after the bomb blasts in Bali, which killed more than 200 people, mostly foreigners.

APEC was set up in November 1989 and designed to boost regional economic cooperation and investment liberalization.

It currently has 21 member countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Erni said the two countries were also studying the possibility of setting up a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). The U.S. has agreed to provide financial aid to study the proposed FTA.