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View all search resultsIndonesia’s missing maritime holding: Turning seafaring identity into industrial power
For a nation that calls itself the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia has never built the industrial architecture needed to transform its maritime identity into maritime power.
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State-owned oil and has holding company Pertamina’s landing craft tank (LCT) ship sets sail on Oct. 14 for Palu, Central Sulawesi from Balikpapan in East Kalimantan. The ship arrived in Palu to transport liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). (Courtesy of/Pertamina)
I
ndonesia has created strategic holdings for nearly every major artery of its national economy. Pertamina anchors energy, Mind ID consolidates minerals and Defend ID coordinates defense manufacturing. Even food, aviation and digital infrastructure now operate under unified umbrellas.
Yet one sector, arguably the country’s most natural, most historic and most geographically defining, remains astonishingly unorganized. For a nation that calls itself the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia has never built the industrial architecture needed to transform its maritime identity into maritime power.
We have holdings for upstream petroleum, downstream metals and defense technology, but no integrated institution to orchestrate shipbuilding, national shipping, port-industrial coordination or maritime component manufacturing.
This institutional void has consequences: Indonesia loses billions of dollars in value every year while foreign shipyards and component suppliers quietly profit from our dependence.
The contrast with other countries is instructive. Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands, none with Indonesia’s geographic advantage, have built maritime sectors with deep industrial value: engines, steel, radar, propulsions, navigation electronics and standardized ship designs.
Indonesia, despite hosting sea lanes through which over 40 percent of global trade flows, still relies on foreign-built vessels and imported maritime systems. Our maritime economy contributes around 8.1 percent of gross domestic product, but the structure is shallow: dominated by basic logistics, not high-value manufacturing.
The issue is not lack of potential; it is lack of orchestration.
