Indonesia is on the right track to become a key player in the international maritime industry during President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) tenure, local media quoted International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Secretary-General Ki-tack Lim as saying.
“Your president knows exactly what you should do, and what area you should improve. He made a good presentation at the IMO. He knows exactly at that point,” Lim said.
Widodo has on several occasions mentioned his intention to make Indonesia the main hub for global maritime transportation. The president intends to start this process by building world-class harbours across the archipelago to raise the country’s competitiveness and reduce the complexity of logistics.
The president visited the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee in London last month at the invitation of Lim as part of the secretary general’s initiative to raise awareness of the organization.
“I’m so confident that you will achieve the target [during Jokowi’s tenure],” Lim said. “If you look at your neighbouring countries, you see many success stories. You have great potential for a prosperous maritime industry.”
However, Lim said Indonesia needs to pay more attention to financial sustainability and invest more in improving skills of workers in the maritime industry instead of only focusing on building ports.
“I have some doubts about how much manpower you have to promote international shipping, technical management of ships and also how to develop your port infrastructure, design ports and how to take care of logistics. These are not the easy ones,” he said.
Lim suggested that Indonesia should engage in more strategic bilateral partnerships with other countries that have more expertise in the maritime industry.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.