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Sale of islands prohibited, says official
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The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry's deputy for maritime sovereignty, Arif Havas Oegroseno, says selling the island violates government regulations. (tempo.co/Arnold Simanjuntak)
The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has stressed that selling islands is illegal, according to Indonesian regulations.
The ministry’s deputy for maritime sovereignty, Arif Havas Oegroseno, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that putting an island up for sale violates Government Regulation No. 62/2010 on the utilization of small and outer islands.
“What can be sold are plots of land on islands,” Havas said at the ministry as quoted by tempo.co.
Havas’ statement was in response to an advertisement on privateislandsonline.com that offers Islet Ajap near Bintan in Riau islands province.
The islet is offered at Rp 44 billion (US$3.08 million).
The regulation states that the maximum area of land that can be sold is 70 percent of the total land area of the island, while the other 30 percent should be allocated for public interests, Havas added.
Havas said the people who controlled the island territory had no authority to exploit resources on the seabed surrounding the island.
Meanwhile, Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan was reluctant to comment on the sale of the island by the website, which is based in Ontario, Canada. He said he needed to check the information before commenting on it. (bbn)
