Jakarta, Nov 19 (Antara) - Indonesia needs to build adequate infrastructure to facilitate the flow of 150 thousand tons of goods per day and reduce its logistics costs, which still account for 26.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan stressed that the government must ensure the development of infrastructure in an effort to reduce logistics costs.
"I am confident that if infrastructure is developed and improved, logistics activities will become more efficient and effective," Minister Jonan said during a "Tempo Economic Briefing" in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The minister said that even development and improvement of infrastructure across the country will smooth the dispatch of goods and reduce the logistics cost that the people should spend.
"We all know our ultimate goals in this respect. We want our logistics activities to be more efficient and more effective. The problem of infrastructure and logistics should be solved not only by the private sector, but also by the government and state-owned enterprises (SOEs)," the minister said.
He added that the increased capacity of goods for transportation should be met with improved infrastructure facilities. Jonan also cited the volume of goods that need to be transported, which has today reached 150 thousand tons. This is a drastic increase if compared with 40 thousand tons seven years ago.
Logistics costs in Indonesia touched 26.4 percent of the GDP, which is higher than other countries, such as Malaysia (15 percent), South Korea (16.3 percent), Japan (10.6 percent and the United States (9.9 percent).
"The government should not merely focus on goods logistics, but also on people¿s movement," he said.
According to Jonan, attention should also be focused on the movements of people because population growth continues to increase. "Demand for logistics transportation continues to increase. If infrastructure is inadequate, we will continue to be left behind as the country¿s population is growing positively by 1 percent," the minister said, adding that it is different from western countries, where population growth is minus 1 percent.
"Our infrastructure is still running after the population growth. It is impossible for it to take over," he added.
Apart from infrastructure development aimed at reducing logistics costs, the government is also targeting to prepare 10 thousand certified workers with ASEAN standard in the logistics industry this year.
The Deputy for Industry and Trade of the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Office, Edy Putra Irawadi said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the quality of Indonesia's workers in the logistics field is still lower than their ASEAN counterparts. Moreover, the government is willing to accelerate trade activities to make the import and export performances more efficient.
"At present, we only have three thousand certified logistics workers," Edy said at the "Tempo Economic Briefing" event.
According to Edy, industries at home often used logistics workers from abroad. A number of industries have employed logistics workers at their warehouses in Bangladesh and from other countries, he stated.
"(With the non-certified ones), the number of our logistics workers is below 50 thousand now. We hope we will have 10 thousand certified workers by the end of the year," he added.
Therefore, the government plans to conduct a crash program in the next two months to increase the number of certified logistics workers by seven thousand at the end of the year.
To achieve this target, Edy said his office is cooperating with the National Agency for Profession Certification (BNSP).
In the meantime, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) is cooperating with the Development Committee of China in the construction of international standard seaports in Indonesia's eastern regions.
"The Kadin is cooperating with the Development Committee of China in the construction of international standard ports in Indonesia," Kadin deputy chairman for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Yogi Prayanto said.
Yogi made the statement during the signing of memorandums of understanding between Kadin and China's Development Committee, as well as between Indonesia Sorong Port and China North Bay Shatin Port in Jakarta on Tuesday (Nov.17).
He said the cooperation was established as part of the efforts to seize opportunities in the construction of ports and piers, in accordance with the world maritime axis and sea toll concepts of President Joko Widodo.
With the efforts to improve infrastructure and to certify workers in the logistics field, Indonesia hopes that its logistics economy will improve next year.
An expert in statistics predicted Indonesia's economy especially in logistics sector would improve in 2016.
"I predict improvement would be recorded in a number of sectors in 2016 including in the logistics sector," Kresnayana Yahya from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) of Surabaya said.
Progress has been made in the development of sea toll program, Kresnayana cited.
Sea toll is a program of President Joko Widodo to modernize sea transport facility and build more ports to facilitate sea transport between the western part of the country and its less developed eastern region.
Sea toll would cut logistics cost especially in eastern region of the country, he said here on Wednesday (Nov. 11) .
"East Java hopes to see economic progress in 2016 with the construction of new infrastructure, the Teluk Lamong port, cutting logistics cost in this region," he added. ***3***
(A014/INE)
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(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 19-11-2015 20:12:0 |
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