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Retailers seek access to maritime highway
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A ship berths at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java. (tempo.co/File)
R
etailers have pushed for access to maritime highway facilities to send their goods from western to eastern regions within the country.
The maritime highway program focused on transporting basic needs such as sugar, rice, cooking oil, meat and construction material, said Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo) chairman Roy Nicholas Mandey in Jakarta on Monday.
He said the association would discuss the request with the government. "We had no idea how to use the maritime highway," he said at the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).
Under the program, one of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s priority programs, the government prepares cargo ships to travel east from the western part of the country.
The ships stop at a number of ports to drop off goods and load different goods to be transported to other ports.
According to the Transportation Ministry, there are 13 routes operating under the program.
Roy said that if retailers accessed the maritime highway's facilities, logistic costs to eastern Indonesia could be reduced by 15 to 20 percent. (bbn)
