P

em>President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo created public controversy when he picked a tattooed high-school dropout and heavy smoker, Susi Pudjiastuti, the owner and CEO of PT ASI Pudjiastuti Aviation [Susi Air] and PT ASI Pudjiastuti Marine Product [Susi Marine], as Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister in his Cabinet. The Jakarta Post'€™s Nurfika Osman recently talked to Susi to get an insight into what she has in store in order to develop Indonesia'€™s maritime and fisheries industries. Below are excerpts from the interview.

Question: By establishing the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, the president made maritime affairs an important sector that needs to be developed. What was his message to you to develop the maritime and fisheries sectors and how are you translating his message into action?

Answer: Two-thirds of our country is water and his mission is clear; he wants our fishermen to be the host of Indonesia and he wants fishermen to enjoy prosperous lives. What I have to do as an operational site in the maritime affairs structure is that I need to execute his mission. I put priority on combating illegal fishing because this is the biggest loss in fisheries. Then I need to combat legal fishing but that which is done through inappropriate practices.

We already have the Fishing Equipment Law that regulates fishing practices in Indonesia since we want such practices to be friendly to the environment and sustainable. But, people want to get as much fish as they can. Thus, they are using the wrong equipment.

I also want to combat undocumented double-flag fishing vessels because they do not give any pennies to our country yet they catch our fish. When a foreign fishing vessel wants to enter Indonesian waters, it needs to be registered in Indonesia or have an Indonesian flag. It needs to have a deletion [certificate and] a bill of sale in order to make the ship stateless, then we can register the ship in Indonesia. But the problem is that the bills of sale are fake; the ships are still registered in their original countries. What they do is they catch our fish and return to their countries.

There are 1,200 double-flag fishing vessels in the country, but the problem doesn'€™t stop there. It is very painful to know that there are another 5,000 double-flag fishing vessels out there, operating in our waters, and they are unreported and undocumented. Each of these ships generates revenue of at least US$2.5 million a year. Some of them use subsidized fuel [even though] some of [our fishermen] don'€™t get it because subsidized fuel is prone to smuggling.

I wish I could use my Susi Air planes to bomb the double-flag ships. If the president allowed me to do so, I would. I think 50 Susi Air aircraft is enough to sink all of them. Well, that is in my imagination.

How do you deal with this matter? It will not be easy for you to combat illegal fishing and double-flag fishing boats alone.

I want to work with many institutions. That is the reason I recently went to the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] because I want the KPK people to be involved in the fishing businesses from the very first step. I want to make this business transparent so that there will be no place for dirty business.

I also want to work with the Navy and water police to enhance patrols at sea. I need them to help
catch the perpetrators of illegal fishing. I want these people to be brought to trial to create a deterrent effect.

Recently a six-month moratorium on fishing licenses for ships measuring more than 30 gross tons [GT] was implemented. I am working on new regulations to be passed once this moratorium is removed. Some of the new regulations include a quota for the fishing time frame, the type of fish, the
number of active vessels, ship size and capacity, as well as fish zoning. I need to work on this immediately since I only have five years to improve the maritime and fisheries sectors.

Moreover, my ministry plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with ambassadors of six neighboring countries '€” Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Australia '€” on Dec. 13, to help combat illegal and unreported fishing activities. The government will order the ambassadors to remove their ships from Indonesian waters if they are proven to have entered illegally.

The ASEAN Economic Community is ahead of us. What will you do to help improve the quality of our fisheries products and make them competitive in the market?

My ministry has a number of programs to improve the quality of maritime and fisheries products and we will continue the programs. We will also provide ice machines to fishermen so that they do not use harmful chemicals such as formalin to preserve their fish.

Then I plan to create a fisheries business directory that will be published on the ministry website so that any party or businesspeople who wish to work with us know where to go and who to contact.

Next, I want to set up a seafood trade forum where foreign investors can talk to and make deals with our players. I will have some people there who are good at English and Japanese to help smooth the talks and deals. I am hoping that the forum can be established before the end of the year.

Also, our tuna and shrimp were subjected to 14 percent and 12 percent import tariffs, respectively, after we joined the G20. With only two products, we have lost $285 million a year. Indonesian fishermen are not rich; our fishermen are as poor as fishermen in East Timor. There should be an exception in treatment for our fisheries. I need zero percent tariffs for our fisheries products.