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fficials with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry said the government was endeavoring to have an Indonesian become executive director of the prestigious Coral Triangle Initiative's (CTI) regional office in Manado, North Sulawesi.

"Currently, we are doing all we can to secure Widi Agus Pratikto, a former ministry official and one of the people who originally devised the idea of the CTI, as the group's executive director," Sudirman Saad, head of the national committee for the World Coral Reef Conference (WCRC) and who is also an official at the ministry, said on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the conference in Manado.

He said Indonesia was confident that it could fulfill its ambition as most participating countries appeared to support Indonesia's proposal.

Gellwyn Jusuf, head of Indonesia's delegation at the conference, said that besides Indonesia, two other member countries, Timor Leste and the Philippines, had shown their support for Widi.

"Pak Widi possesses everything that's needed to embark on this great work," he said.

As for other contenders, Sudirman added, there was Nur Aini, a coral reef expert from Malaysia, who is also considered to possess both the passion and dedication in this particular field.

Whoever wins the vote, he said, would work from Manado for the next three years. The executive director would deliberate and direct all work and activities related to coral reef protection in the region.

The Coral Triangle encompasses 647 million hectares of land and seabed located within Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste. The project aims to protect these countries' coral reef under the auspices of the CTI's Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security movement.

Indonesia boasts the largest area of coral reef in the region, around 42,000 square kilometers according to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). It is also hosting the WCRC for a second time.

Six founding member countries and dozens of other countries that have waters in their territories, and a number of environmental NGOs and donor organizations are attending the WCRC, which began on Tuesday and runs through Saturday this week.