| By Andi Abdussalam |
Jakarta, July 6 (ANTARA) - The plan of former maritime affairs and fisheries minister, Fadel Muhammad, to make Indonesia one of the major fish-producing countries in the world by 2014 has not borne fruit, according to a legislator. "The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (KKP) has no clear plans yet on the development of the fishing industry. It uses the biggest portion of the allocated funds on pond fish cultivation and fish catching. The government has allocated Rp6 trillion in the 2012 state budget," said Herman Khaeron, the deputy chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission IV on fishery and agricultural affairs, on Thursday. Until the first half of this year, he added, the ministry of maritime affairs and fisheries had not been able to start working on its vision of developing the country's fishing industry. There has been no increase in investment in the fisheries sector, and the fish-processing industry is running short of raw materials. "Due to the lack of raw materials, factories are able to operate at only about 40 percent to 60 percent of their maximum capacity," Herman said. In 2009, the government (KKP) launched a fisheries development programme called "Minapolitan", which had the dual objective of increasing production in the marine and fisheries sector and improving people's income. Dedy H. Sutisna, the director general of fishing, said the programme was 'not developed from scratch, but from already existing conditions', adding that it was yet to be fully operational. "The government will organize and complete it", he stated. In the early days of the launch of the programme, the then maritime affairs and fisheries minister Fadel Muhammad had announced plans to increase the country's fish production to 300 percent by 2014. "The target is to increase the production of fish by 353 percent. It sounds ambitious, but we will boost production from the fish cultivation sector," Fadel explained. For the initial part of the programme, an additional budget of Rp1.6 trillion was allocated in order to increase the production by 27 percent in 2010. To achieve the target, the programme focused on the development of Minapolitan areas (fishery-based development areas in 41 Indonesian regions). In 2011, the ministry focused on the Minapolitan areas, which included nine fishing sites, 24 aquaculture sites, and eight central salt sites. The three main activities of Minapolitan areas are pond fish cultivation, fish catching, and salt production. The Minapolitan regions in Indonesia include Belawan (North Sumatra), Sungai Liat (Bangka Belitung), Pelabuhan Ratu (East Java), Cilacap (Central Java), Bitung (North Sulawesi) and Ternate (North Maluku). The regions that focused on pond fish cultivation were Muaro Jambi ( patin fish) and Kampar Riau (patin fish), Bogor in West Java (catfish), Banyumas in Central Java (gurame/carp fish), and Morowali in Central Sulawesi, Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara and Sumba in East Nusa Tenggara (seaweed). Also, there are several regions in Java, such as Cirebon, Indramayu, Rembang, Sumenep, and Pamekasan, that are suitable for salt cultivation. With the programme, Fadel claimed, the fish production target set for 2010 was achieved, both from fish-catching and aquaculture activities. "Fish production from catch and aquaculture operations amounted to 10.83 million tonnes in 2010, surpassing the target of 10.76 million tons," he said. However, Herman criticized the KKP ministry for failing to meet the infrastructure, logistics and raw materials requirements necessary for the development of the country's fishery industry. "A major chunk of the Rp6 trillion budget for the fisheries sector in 2012 was allocated for pond fish cultivation, while the fish catching sector declined," he said. The legislator added that the ministry should develop the sectors that were most important for the welfare of the local people, such as the development of fishery industry for coastal people. "At present, the concept of developing fisheries as an industry has not yet been developed properly," Herman said. In the meantime, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X said the slow progress in the development of the fisheries sector in the country was mainly because of overlapping policies that created conflict among the ministries. "We have the impression that the government has no master plan for the development of the maritime and fishing industry. It can be seen in the overlapping maritime laws. This leads to conflict of interest among government institutions," Sri Sultan explained. He said the Indonesian maritime and fisheries sector could not develop because of the laws that hampered coordination among responsible authorities. Besides the KKP, Sri Sultan pointed out, other institutions which were involved in maritime affairs included the Defence Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Tourism Ministry, the Industry Ministry, the Trade Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Public Works Ministry, the Forestry Ministry, the Environment Ministry, the National Police and the Navy. He identified the industries with which KKP could have potential coordination problems ¿ industry ministry (in fish processing), trade ministry (in fish marketing), the forestry ministry (on management of marine parks), the transportation ministry (on issuance of licences for ports) and the energy and mineral resources ministry (on regulations). Meanwhile, the current Maritime Affairs and Fisheries minister, Sharif Cicip Sutardjo, said his ministry would ¿reactivate the Indonesian Maritime Council to ensure proper coordination among the ministries and institutions for the management of polices on maritime affairs and fisheries¿.***2*** |
Jumat, 06 Juli 2012
FISHERIES SECTOR DEVELOPMENT GOING NOWHERE
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