JAKARTA. Indonesia is seeking foreign investors to set up joint ventures to develop fisheries in the Natuna and Riau islands, a move that could eventually help establish peace in the South China Sea, a senior minister has said.
Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Wednesday the government would welcome any country interested in establishing a joint fisheries company and tapping into the fisheries potential in Natuna to help it achieve its annual 1 million ton annual fish production target.
"Last week's Cabinet meeting also decided that we need to establish our own fish market in the area, an international one like what Japan has established," Luhut said. The minister further said that the government also planned to relocate 4,000 to 6,000 semi-grounded fishing boats from northern Java waters to the Natuna Islands due to declining fish stocks in the former area. Joint ventures in fisheries might create job opportunities for locals, he went on.
The economic cooperation is being offered as a way to maintain peace between Indonesia and other claimant states in the South China Sea spat, especially China, who has rejected an international tribunal's ruling that Beijing’s claims to the regional sea have no legal basis.
Indonesia's exclusive economic zone, which covers over 2.000 islands in the Natuna waters, overlaps with China's claimed "nine-dash line" quasi-territorial border, which stretches up to 2.000 kilometers away from its mainland. (Marguerite Afra Sapiie)
