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Govt to provide online system in major ports to cut costs
The government aims to see the online port system Inaportnet ready at four major ports in September, as part of an attempt to boost efficiency and reduce costs
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The government aims to see the online port system Inaportnet ready at four major ports in September, as part of an attempt to boost efficiency and reduce costs.
The online system, first introduced in 2012, integrates the port’s entire information system and expedites the process of traders to request clearances and permits online for the movement of cargoes.
Transportation Ministry sea traffic director Bay M. Hasani said that with the new service, the documentation process regarding the issuance of permits could take only 1.5 hours, whereas previously with the manual system it took much longer and at uncertain rates. The system will also cut costs previously needed to access the services.
“With the expedited service, it will also decrease the potential for demurrage,” Bay said recently, referring to the charges that the ship charterer pays to the shipowner for its use of the vessel.
Daily demurrage charges for foreign vessels could go up to US$10,000 to $20,000 per day, and the online port system could cut logistics costs by as much as 30 percent.
Inaportnet has so far been implemented in Makassar Port since March and Belawan Port, North Sumatra, since July.
The country’s two biggest ports, Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, East Java and Tanjung Priok in Jakarta, are slated to catch up by the end of August and September, consecutively.
“In Surabaya, we are still waiting for the readiness of [state-owned port operator] Pelindo III to be integrated with Inaport,” Bay said.
For Tanjung Priok Port, preparation has reached 80 percent thus far before its plans to launch in September.
Indonesia’s stubbornly high logistics costs have made local products less competitive compared to its peers in the region, with logistics costs accounting for 26 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), double those of Singapore and Malaysia. In the latest World Bank 2016 Logistics Performance Index (LPI), Indonesia has slipped 10 places to 63rd out of 160 countries surveyed.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has rolled out many policies and supervisory efforts to bring down logistics costs, including the establishment of a task force to help shorten dwell times at local ports, and the re-launching of the export-import licensing website Indonesia National Single Window (INSW). INSW integrates trade licenses from 18 units out of 15 ministries and institutions.
Although Inaportnet was supposed to be part of the INSW, they have yet to be integrated thus far.
“In the future, trade and port should have single response from INSW. It should be single submission, single decision, single processing,” Bay said.
Commenting on the Inaportnet online system at four major ports in the country, Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA) vice chairman Suyono, who oversees international matters, said that the organization welcomed the system.
“[We support it] if it makes the port service faster, lowers risks and costs,” he added.
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