Jakarta, Nov 2 (Antara) - Fisheries is one of Indonesia¿s sources of revenues that need adequate funds for its development and utilization in a sustainable manner. Yet, it cannot develop faster due to lack of funds.
"The fisheries sector is growing slowly due to a number of constraints. The government needs to further boost the realization of the fishery micro business credit (KUR) credit because fishery business needs financing stimulus to grow faster," National Coordinator of the Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW), Moh Abdi Suhufan, said in Jakarta on Sunday (Oct 28).
The smallholder's KUR scheme for the fisheries sector, therefore, needs to be further enhanced as currently, the KUR credit beneficiaries are dominated by the trade and agriculture business sectors.
The realization of KUR for fisheries reached Rp1.19 trillion in late September 2017 from the total KUR realization of Rp69.9 trillion. Thus, the realization of the credit is expected to increase further as there are three more months for banks to channel KUR credits to the fisheries sector.
After all, the KUR credit for the fishery sector lagged far behind compared to that for agriculture and forestry sectors, which had reached 16.53 trillion or 23.53 percent of the total realization of KUR up to September 2017. The realization of the KUR for the fisheries sector in 2017 was 1.13 percent compared to that of the previous year.
"There are four major obstacles faced by the fisheries sector with regard to the absorption of the KUR credits, including complicated procedures, business legality, and poor use of group assistance," Suhufan remarked.
The fourth challenge in the distribution of KUR credits to the fisheries sector is regarding the disbursement of the scheme when fishermen go or do not go fishing or when cultured fish cultivators harvest their fish.
With regard to the business legality, the average fishery business has not been equipped with a Fisheries Trade Business License (SIUP) and a Location Business License (SITU), he added.
Suhufan predicted that the realization of the KUR for the fisheries sector in 2017 will increase by 1.13 percent compared to the previous year.
It indicated that the prospects and feasibility of the fisheries business in the country is increasingly attractive to the public and the financing or the banking sector not only in the fisheries sector but also in other small business, such as plantations, animal husbandry, the fisheries.
For this purpose, the government is preparing a new micro business loan (KUR) scheme to accelerate the distribution of loans to the production sector such as fisheries, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution stated.
"We are designing this to increase productivity," Nasution noted after a meeting to discuss KUR here on Friday (Oct 27).
Nasution explained that the new scheme will focus on the fishery sector, small plantations and animal husbandry managed in clusters and will work in synergy with the current KUR scheme.
"We believe that the targeted disbursement of KUR could help more farmers, fishermen, and craftsmen to improve their productivity," Nasution noted.
The government has set the KUR credit ceiling at Rp25 million to Rp500 million for each member in a group.
To boost farming, the new KUR scheme is expected to support cattle and chicken farming to realize food sufficiency.
For the plantation business, the government will set a seven percent interest rate for the loan and is expected to boost the productivity of palm oil, rubber, and coconut as the country's main commodities.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said that the government would lower the interest rate of the Smallholder's Micro Business Credit (KUR) to seven percent beginning in 2018.
"The economic affairs minister reiterated that the KUR credit interest will be lowered to seven percent next year," Jokowi stated, while handing a number of decrees on state forest utilization in Muara Gembong, Bekasi, West Java province, on Wednesday.
Jokowi mentioned that the KUR interest rate had reached 22 percent per year several years ago. "Last year, the KUR interest rate was reduced to nine percent per year," he noted.
According to Jokowi, KUR interest rate decline is part of the government's efforts to improve the economy, especially among small and medium enterprise players.
The government has set a target to distribute RP110 trillion in KUR credit to small businesses this year.
Until September, 2017, Rp69.9 trillion of KUR credit has been distributed. "I hope, the distribution of Rp100 trillion KUR credit this year would be achieved," Minister of Cooperatives and Small Businesses AAGN Puspayoga was quoted as saying by okezone.com news portal last month. ***3***(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 02-11-2017 23:45: |
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