January 2, 2004

 

 

Indonesia Targets 9.6 Tons Fish Output By 2006

 

The Indonesian Minister for Marine Resources and Fisheries Rokhmin Dahuri said the National Development Program for Marine Resources and Fisheries (Gerbang Mina Bahari) should reach a production capacity of 9.6 tons of fish by 2006.

 

"If the program can be implemented as planned, we will get benefits from fish exports, tourism and job creations," Rokhmin said on Tuesday at a ceremony to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Juanda Declaration.

 

He predicted Indonesia would receive US$5 billion from the fish exports, US$2.5 billion from tourism and create three million jobs.

 

President Megawati Soekarnoputri launched the Gerbang Mina Bahari in Tomini Bay, Sulawesi, on October 11, 2003.

 

According to Rohkmin, the program was launched in relation with the country's largest potential marines and fishery.

 

He said Indonesia had yet to utilize the potential to the maximum due to some problems such as the availability of modern fishing boats, qualified human resources, technology and marketing infrastructure.

 

Apart from these, the Gerbang Mina Bahari also faced macro-structural matters such as fiscal and monetary policies, law certainty, security, export-import and tax policy, retribution and regional autonomy euphoria, the minister said.

 

He believed that Indonesia would become a developed, independent and prosperous country if the movement could be implemented seriously because some countries such as South Korea and Thailand which already carried similar policies were able to enjoy their results.

 

South Korea has applied the "Semaul Undong" program (the national rural industrialization), enabling it as one of the developed countries, while Thailand has adopted the national development for agriculture program.

 

Rokhmin, meanwhile, said the government had decided the December 13, as the Nusantara Day, Indonesian Prime Minister Ir. Djuanda declared on Dec 13, 1957.

 

In view of the country's susceptibility to foreign intervention from the sea and for domestic security reasons, on that day the Indonesian government issued the declaration on the territorial waters of the republic.

 

It states that all the waters surrounding and between the islands in the territory came within Indonesia's sovereignty.

 

It also determined that the country's territorial water limit was 12 miles, measured from a straight baseline drawn from the outermost points of the islands.

 

In the past, archipelagic states like Indonesia have unilaterally determined their 200-mile-Exclusive Economic Zones (ZEE).

 

Today such economic zones are confirmed by the International Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was ratified by the Indonesian government on October 18, 1983, by Act No.5 of the same year. This is the legal basis of the Indonesian ZEE.