Jakarta, Aug 7 (Antara) -- The government has expressed hope that its plan to shorten the dwelling time at Indonesian ports from the current 10 to 11 days to only four days will be implemented by October or December this year.
President Joko Widodo's government is focusing on reducing the dwelling time, which continues to be considered too long, to smooth economic activities at ports.
It will reduce the time taken to load goods on and unload goods from ships at Indonesian ports to only four days.
Chief Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil said on Thursday that the four-day dwelling time target will be implemented by December at the latest.
To make improvements to this service, good coordination among relevant ministries/agencies is needed.
"As a mid-term plan, it should be completed by October, and we hope it is at least 95 percent complete by December," he remarked.
Djalil made the statement after chairing a meeting with Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Susilo. The meeting was also attended by Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno, and Transportation Minister Ignasisu Jonan
According to Susilo, the plan to shorten the dwelling time is expected to be finalized by October or December this year. The activities to be carried out include simplifying and easing bureaucratic processes by reducing the number of required surveyor reports.
"We will reduce the number of surveyor reports required, particularly unnecessary ones. A team from the excise office and port authorities will tighten pre-customs and post-customs processes. If it can be done, they will be completed within a day. We will also try to prevent goods from piling up at ports," he affirmed.
Thus, the dwelling time at ports can be reduced to three and a half to four days. This will be realized soon, and the timeline for it must be made to decide when it should be completed," Minister Susilo stated.
The loading and unloading of ships consists of three steps---pre-customs clearance that should be completed in 2.7 days, customs clearance in 0.5 days and post-customs clearance in 1.5 days.
It is pre-customs clearance that takes too long as it is handled (by importers) only after the goods arrive.
Moreover, Trade Minister Rahmat Gobel noted last June that the government had mapped out matters that caused the dwelling time at ports to stretch.
Importers are less disciplined because they complete licensing procedures only after their goods arrive at the port, which extends the dwelling time, he explained.
"There are many such cases. So we have to bring it to order and regulate it, similar to how a traveler needs a visa to go abroad. If s/he does not have one, a boarding pass cannot be issued," he stated.
The new regulation will be publicized through the media so importers abide by it, the minister added.
Last week, Minister Susilo had said that the cost of logistics in Indonesia constituted 24.5 percent of the GDP, or roughly US$250 billion.
However, the government has set a target to reduce the logistics cost to 19 percent of the total GDP. "One of the ways to achieve this is by reducing the dwelling time," he emphasized.
The dwelling time is projected to reduce to 4.7 days---2.7 days completing pre-customs processes, 0.5 day completing customs processes, and 1.5 days completing post-customs processes. "It will take 5.7 days at the most," the minister affirmed.
If the set target of 19 percent of the GDP is achieved, the state will save some US$50 billion in logistics cost. "The efficiency of loading and unloading can be improved. It should be optimized," he remarked.
In 2014, the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) ranked Indonesia 53rd in a list of 160 countries. Indonesia ranked behind neighboring nations such as Vietnam (48), Thailand (35), and Malaysia (25).
Singapore has the best LPI among member states of the ASEAN and is ranked among the world's top five after Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Great Britain.
Furthermore, President Director of PT Pelindo II R. J. Lino hailed the government's plan to shorten the dwelling time at ports. He also welcomes its move to revive its plan to clear containers docked for long at ports.
One of the suggestions made by Lino was that to shorten dwelling time, ships should be obligated to send documents on exports as soon as they are sent from their ports of origin. This way, they can do away with the long process of examining documents in the pre-clearance phase.
"Documents are gathered after ships arrive. If possible, they should be sent three or four days before the ships enter the ports to avoid the pre-customs process. So importers should provide their manifests online before their ships leave their ports of origin," the head of the port operator explained.
Currently, of the three phases of dwelling time, the pre-clearance phase is the one that continues to take too long. So far, this phase has been questioned because it leads to inefficiency in the loading and unloading of goods. ***3***(T.A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 07-08-2015 20:49:2 |
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