TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt to offer investors fishing quotas worth $7.7B in 2022
By granting investors commercial fishing rights worth more than $7 billion annually starting next year, the country seeks to turn fisheries into a driver of the economy.
Change Size
Vietnamese fishing vessels allegedly used for illegal fishing are sunk in waters near Datuk Island, West Kalimantan, in May 2019. (Antara / via Reuters /Jessica Helena Wuysang)
T
he government plans to offer Rp 110.2 trillion (US$7.71 billion) worth of commercial fishing rights annually starting next year as it banks on fisheries as a driver of economic development.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said on Tuesday that the total quota was 4.89 million tons annually in four fishing zones within two fisheries management areas (WPP) of the archipelago.
Investors from China, Japan and Europe had shown interest in this matter, he said, adding that the European investors were keen on operating in the southern region of Indonesia due to the large population of tuna and many other deep-sea fish.
“We will offer this to foreign and [domestic] investors. We will coordinate with the Investment Ministry regarding the procedures, bidding process and permits,” Trenggono told the audience of a webinar.
According to the ministry’s data, Zone Three – which is comprised of the Maluku Sea (WPP 715) and Arafuru Sea (WPP 718) in proximity to Australia – is the largest of the four with the annual quota of 2.26 million tons estimated to be worth Rp 46.12 trillion.
The second-largest is Zone Four – comprising WPP 572 and 573 in the Indian Ocean – with an annual quote of 1.41 million tons worth around Rp 35.18 trillion, followed by Zone Two located in the Sulawesi Sea and Pacific Ocean (WPP 716 and 717) and Zone One located in the Natuna waters (WPP 711), adjacent to the South China Sea.
Read also: ‘Blue economy’ not enough to make oceans sustainable, experts say
