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em>As a completely new portfolio in Indonesia'€™s Cabinet history, the office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister was established by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo as a platform for his vision to transform the country into a global maritime power by orchestrating four ministries '€” the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the Tourism Ministry '€“ to solve a myriad of issues and create breakthroughs. Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Soesilo, former fisheries and aquaculture resource director at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), recently discussed programs and challenges surrounding the ambitious plan with The Jakarta Post'€™s Rendi A. Witular, Vincent Lingga and Grace D. Amianti. The following is an excerpt from the interview.

Question: Could you explain why the four ministries are under your coordination in relation to maritime issues?

Answer: When I was appointed to my position, I asked the President why he established the office. He said that the Transportation Ministry, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, the Tourism Ministry and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry will work in relation with the sea as envisioned in his dream of Indonesia as a global '€œmaritime axis'€.

In the transportation sector, the President aims to create a fast-traffic of ships on the sea, which he coined '€œmaritime highways'€. The President also dreams of improving our country'€™s marine tourism, as Indonesia is known as '€œthe last heaven on earth'€.

Regarding the energy and mineral sector, it is known that 40 out of 60 Indonesia'€™s oil and gas reserves were found in the sea or offshore. Our vast water territory also offers a bulk of alternative energy, such as sea currents, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), wind, sun and so on.

Last but not least, we have the richness of deep sea, coastal and freshwater resources for fisheries and ecosystem services.

The four ministries were also chosen for their powerful potentials in terms of revenue generation. Currently, the four ministries contribute around 70 percent to the non-tax state'€™s revenue [PNBP].

What are the issues in the four sectors '€” maritime and fisheries, transportation, tourism, energy and mineral resources '€” that should be solved?

Our optimal goal is to boost social welfare, so I tried to find the root of the problems in the four sectors at my initial meeting with ministers and officials of the four ministries. Based on our discussion, I found that the main issue revolved around permit issuance for business and infrastructure developments. So, my office'€™s main policy is to accelerate efforts to ease and simplify the process of obtaining permits to push investment in the four sectors.

For instance, Transportation Minister [Ignasius] Jonan said his ministry wanted to boost the development of 24 seaports, including five deep sea harbors in Belawan in North Sumatra, Tanjung Priok in Jakarta, Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Sorong in Papua to support the President'€™s maritime highway concept. The total investment is Rp 70 trillion. However, Pak Jonan said that one port project required at least 200 permits from various institutions.

Second, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said said the ministry wanted to push power plant development to reach the electricity supply target of 35,000 megawatts [MW]. Currently, Java only produces 23,000 MW with 8 percent growth, which means that the island should add 1,800 MW to avoid a supply shortage in the next five or six years. Well, we have seen rampant electricity supply shortages in some regions outside Java. Now, we have a long list of investors who are interested in building coal-fired power plants, but they often meet similar problems in obtaining permits and in acquiring land.

Third, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said his ministry aimed for 10 million foreign tourists next year and 20 million in 2019, while currently the country only welcomes around 8 to 9 million. The tourism sector also faces issues revolving the issuance of permits and licenses, so the ministry wants to add more visa exemptions and facilitate permits for yachts to boost foreign tourists.

The fourth is the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, which also targets issues having to do with permits, especially for vessels to eliminate illegal fishing.

What are their top program priorities?

In the transportation sector, Pak Jonan said that his ministry was ready to fix the problems, as most of the 200 permits required for one seaport project were not cross-sectors. Meanwhile, the rest of the permits are related to ministerial decisions, which could be delegated to Pak Jonan'€™s first echelon officials to simplify procedures.

Another example is the breakthrough achieved by [the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister] Ibu Susi [Pudjiastuti] when she opened the detailed list of 5,300 units of licensed fishermen vessels and decided to installed vessel monitoring system [VMS] to track them for 24 hours. The ministry requires all vessels to file reports immediately if the VMS are off in one or two hours.

Minister Susi also wants to prohibit transshipment and implement the moratorium for new vessel permits until the end of the year to combat illegal fishing. Part of her idea was to invite ambassadors from five countries that had the most vessel permits.

The last thing that Ibu Susi proposed was raising the target for non-tax state revenues from the maritime sector to Rp 1.2 trillion next year from Rp 250 billion next year. Most of the revenue will also be related to permits.

How do you manage the four ministries under your helm?

The Cabinet works without vested interests from any minister because we will decide policies together. I am much more like the protector for technical ministries under my authority and a mediator to the President.