Jakarta, July 28 (Antara) - While focussing its development on the maritime sector, the Indonesian government is being urged to prepare the country's shipbuilding industries so that they can meet the need for ships at home.
Shipbuilding industrires are expected to support the government's maritime axis and sea toll programs. The sea toll program can be successful only if the number of ships is adequate to meet the need for transportation.
After all the government is banning local industries from purchasing ships abroad in its attempt to advance local ship manufacturing companies.
Indonesia's share in the global market is still relatively small, which according to the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) is only about 0.3 percent.
This is smaller compared to the 2.6 percent share of the Philippines and 1.1 percent of Vietnam. China is a major ship exporter with a global market share of 41 percent, while South Korea's share is 33 percent, and Japan's is 18 percent.
Therefore, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce Industry (Kadin) called on the government to prepare the country's shipbuilding industries and resolve all problems in the maritime sector, including its moratorium on the use of foreign ships.
"If it continues to impose the moratorium (on the use of foreign fishing ships), the government should develop domestic shipbuilding industries which produce adequate number of vessels with international standard quality," Kadin General Chairman for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Yugi Prayanto said on Monday.
Thus, Indonesia will be able to manufacture fishing ships with high quality and able to compete in the global market.
Moreover, the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Resources will allocate some Rp6 trillion next year to build a number of ships to boost the performance of the fisheries and marine resources sector.
"There is national consensus on this subject. Budget spending is aimed at developing national ships," Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Resources Susi Pudjiastuti said early this month.
She added that in 2016, Rp6 trillion will be allocated mostly to build fishing vessels.
In the 2016 budget, Pudjiastuti affirmed that she will allocate about 70 percent of the ministry's budget for stakeholders in the fishery sector.
"We will use ships made by state-owned shipbuilding company PT PAL and other shipbuilding industries in the country," she stated.
State-owned shipbuilding company PT PAL has made ships to meet orders from foreign countries such as the Philippines, Pudjiastuti pointed out.
The minister admitted that the primary problem faced by the fisheries sector was not related to domestic or foreign ships but concerned illegal fishing practices.
In addition, during a visit to Riau Islands recently, President Joko Widodo emphasized that he will ban industries in the country from procuring ships from abroad because shipbuilding industries in Indonesia can meet demand.
"No orders will be allowed to be placed from abroad. Why should we, when we can make them ourselves?" he remarked during a meeting with shipbuilding industrialists at PT Anggrek Hitam Batam on Sunday (June 21).
According to Kadin, cooperation among government agencies such as the industry ministry, state-owned enterprises ministry and marine affairs and fisheries ministry is badly needed to build the country's shipbuilding industries.
"If need be, the President should issue a legal umbrella to regulate the synergy among those ministries," Kadin deputy chairman Yugi Prayanto said.
After all, he said, the government in 2016 needs to domestically build 5,000 fishing vessels. The government should plan all this maturely.
He said that the development of adequate and quality national dockyards needed fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, such as special cuts on value added tax and on import duty for the importation of the needed components and machineries.
"This is a serious issue which has not yet been resolved or given by the government," he said adding that such polices and special regulations on the building of national fishing ships are urgently needed.
In the meantime, the BKPM has invited Chinese investors to build ships in Indonesia in an effort to help advance the maritime sector in Indonesia.
"We are promoting this sector with the Bank of China and the China Classification Society. The event was attended by selected real business players in the sector," Kadin BKPM chief for China affairs Harri Susanto said on last week (July 8).
He said that Indonesia needed 1,500 ships of various categories with a total investment of US$13.4 billion. Currently, there are 250 dockyards in Indonesia such as in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Batam.
The BKPM has mapped out 12 regions which were considered to have the potential to be used as places for the development of shipbuilding industries.
The 12 regions are Riau, Riau Islands, South Sumatra, Lampung, West Kalimantan, Central Java, East Java, North Sulawesi, Papua, Batam, Wongsorejo Industrial Estate in Banyuwangi and the Java Integrated Industrial Port Estate (JIIPE) in East Java.
"The 12 regions have the potential to support the development of shipping industries, including three new regions, namely the Wongsorejo Industrial Estate Banyuwangi, the Java Integrated Industrial Port Estate (JIIPE) and the Free Trade Zone Batam," BKPM Deputy for Investment Planning Tamba Hutapea said on Monday.
The advancement of shipping industries at home will also help improve the welfare of people as it would provide more jobs to the locals.
According to BKPM Head Franky Sibarani, the government's policy to oblige domestic ship procurement and efforts to advance shipbuilding industries at home will increase employment opportunities.
In a written statement received late last month (June 30), he affirmed that he believed the policy can increase the manufacture of ships by domestic industries, which are still around 40 percent of their capacities at present, and boost employment in the industries, now recorded at some 60,000.
"Calculations reveal that an increase of US$1 million in investment will create 75 direct employment opportunities and up to 300 indirect employment opportunities. Right now, we are courting investment interests of US$9.3 billion in the shipbuilding sector, which means they have the potential to absorb up to 700,000 workers," he pointed out.***3***
(T.A014/b003/B003)
(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 28-07-2015 23:40: |
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