D

ue to the complexity of the country'€™s maritime affairs, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has called on the incoming administration of president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to establish a coordinating ministry for maritime affairs.

Such a coordinating ministry would help the government speed up development in this crucial sector, according to Kadin deputy chairman Yugi Prayanto.

It would oversee several ministries and government agencies, including several new institutions that would likely be setup such as a maritime and sea logistics ministry; a marine tourism and creative economy ministry as well as the Sea and Coast Guard (Barkomkamla).

The recommendation is part of 10 crucial issues mentioned in Kadin'€™s 2015-2019 road map for maritime and fisheries development.

'€œWe hope the next government will have a renewed focus [on these issues],'€ Yugi told reporters in a focus group discussion in Jakarta on Monday.

In addition, Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) deputy director for cooperation Yonvitner said the new government would also have to deal with the high costs and complexity of unresolved issues such as security and maritime sovereignty.

He said the current government'€™s lack of commitment had paved the way for foreign parties to exploit regulation loopholes, citing vague wording in regulations and simplistic fishing requirements.

'€œThey [foreign fishermen] are taking advantage of our system'€™s weakness,'€ he said on Monday.

Yonvitner added that neighboring countries like Thailand and Vietnam exploited a lack of patrols on the country'€™s northern borders, while Malaysian fishermen would often sneak into the Malacca Strait near Sulawesi.

He said the Arafura Sea near Papua, the Natuna Sea, the northern waters of Morotai and the Makassar Strait were all prone to illegal fishing.

Meanwhile, the government acknowledged difficulties in patrolling Indonesia'€™s waters, due to the lack of manpower and oversight facilities.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry'€™s Indonesian Maritime Council head, Asrul, said the government was in dire need of more ships. '€œWe still have a small fleet. It'€™s far too little to oversee the entire marine area. We also lack manpower,'€ Asrul said on Monday.

The ministry deploys 27 ships, with four more to be added next year. Asrul said this was far from the 90 ships needed to effectively patrol the country'€™s 7-million kilometers of coastline, as well as its open seas.

In another event, businesses from the maritime logistics sector complained about the illegal levies being extracted at Indonesian seaports in the form of commercial ships often being extorted by the Army, Navy or coastguard personnel whenever they docked at Indonesian seaports to complete their
purchase orders.