Jakarta, March 24 (Antara) - The government, through the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), is focusing its attention on developing the fisheries sector in the eastern regions of Indonesia.
Fisheries is one of the sectors being developed to boost public welfare in the eastern regions, which are relatively lagging behind as compared with those in the western parts of the country.
To this end, a senior official of the KKP had visited Maluku Province to review fisheries development programs in the eastern regions.
"Especially in Maluku and Papua," Director General of Capture Fisheries of the KKP Ministry Sjarief Wijaja had stated in Tual, Maluku, on Friday (Mar 23).
Wijaja, in the company of representatives from state-owned port operator PT Pelindo and state-owned shipping firm PT Pelni, had paid a visit to Tual City to also review its Nusantara Fishery Port that is used as an export base.
Wijaja noted that in order to develop capture fisheries in eastern Indonesia, the KKP Ministry continues to develop Integrated Marine and Fishery Centers (SKPTs) in Saumlaki, West Maluku, Southeast Maluku, and Marauke in Papua.
"We will continue to build SKPTs in Marauke and Saumlaki to offer the required facilities, and I will monitor the development and utilization of fishery facilities in Maluku and Papua optimally," he remarked.
According to KKP Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, SKPTs in various regions across Indonesia are expected to have a direct impact on the economy of local communities.
"SKPTs are being built in various regions not just as a government program that can be witnessed and assessed but also something that can really provide direct benefits to the community," the minister remarked in a press statement received in Jakarta on Thursday.
Pudjiastuti believed that before the eradication of illegal fishing was encouraged, neither the government nor the people could benefit from the abundance of Indonesia's marine resources.
To this end, she noted that it was time for marine resources to benefit Indonesia, among others, through the development of SKPTs that will provide several facilities, such as "cold storages."
The development of SKPTs also aims to advance the country's fishery industry in the outer and isolated islands and provide equitable distribution of income as well as improve the welfare of fishermen.
Besides this, the development of integrated fisheries and marine centers will also increase public services to businesspersons and the people, so that the fisheries business will become more efficient and effective. This is part of the government's efforts to reduce the burden of logistics or costs in the maritime and fisheries sector.
According to Pudjiastuti, SKPTs aim to cut short processes, transportation lines, and logistics of fishermen's fish catch, thereby making Indonesian fishery products relatively cheap in the market. Thus, various sides involved in the logistics processes will not need to bear the high transportation costs.
Additionally, with the presence of the fisheries and marine centers, Indonesian fisheries products could be exported directly from SKPTs. So far, it takes eight hours for the fish catch in Morotai to be transported to Bitung. For further processing, the fish catch is sent from Bitung to Makassar and is transported back again to Bitung before it can be exported. Hence, the minister had noted last year that the process is quite complicated.
To handle this problem, she called for the need to set up a global delivery point from where goods could be exported directly. The delivery point could be established for Indonesia's eastern regions. In the northern part of the eastern region, a delivery point could serve as a hub for the Philippines or the one in the southern part, which could serve as a point for goods to be exported to Australia.
Hence, it is expected that SKPTs, especially in the eastern regions, could serve as export bases from where fisheries products could be shipped to other countries.
The eastern regions are rich in fisheries and other marine resources. Hence, the government, through the KKP, is focusing its attention on regions, such as Maluku and Papua, whose fisheries programs were reviewed by Director General Syarief Wijaja.
The KKP provides fisheries instruments and fishing vessels to increase the volume of fish caught by the fishermen.
In Maluku Province, for instance, fishermen have received assistance from the KKP in the form of environmentally friendly fishing equipment packets (API), fishing vessels, and capital gains obtained from the state-owned BRI bank.
A total of 98 API packages, worth Rp1.07 billion, were donated to them in 2017. The API equipment provided to fishermen included surface gillnet, base gillnet, pole and line, baseline, tonda fishing rod, and handline. They are handed over to local cooperatives: Cakalang Indah Cooperative, Mina Malheno Fishermen Cooperative and Futar Laut Cooperative.
The KKP also handed over as many as 114 fishing vessels of 5 Gross Tonnage (GT), 10 GT, and 20 GT valued at Rp17.6 billion.
Wijaya expressed hope that all assistance offered will be well-utilized, given that Maluku had abundant sea wealth, so it will definitely add value to increase the income of fishermen in the province.***1*** (A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 24-03-2018 14:26: |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar