Indonesia to establish seafood trade forum

JAKARTA. The Indonesian government will initiate a seafood trade forum for local fishermen and businesses in the fisheries and maritime sector to help them prepare to compete in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that will come into effect in December next year, a minister has said.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said that she guaranteed that the seafood trade forum would be established before the end of this year as one of her breakthrough policies as a member of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s Cabinet.

She further said the seafood trade forum was aimed at connecting Indonesian fishermen and business people in the fisheries and maritime sector with those from other countries.

“This forum will not only involve fishermen and business players, but also several experts in other sectors, such as marketing. We need marketing experts because the AEC will create an open and integrated market in this region [Southeast Asia],” Susi told The Jakarta Post in an interview at her office on Wednesday.

As the first step to establish the forum, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry was currently recording all businesses involved in the fisheries and maritime sector across the archipelago and listing them in a directory, said Susi, the former president director of fisheries export company PT ASI Pudjiastuti Marine Products, which was established in 1996.

The minister stated that her ministry would publish the directory online.

Susi also said that the government would sign memorandums of understanding (MoU) on combating illegal fishing with the ambassadors of six neighboring countries — Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and China, on Dec. 13.

“The six ambassadors have told me that they promise to help combat illegal fishing in Indonesia,” she said, adding that she would urge other ambassadors to sign similar MoUs because illegal fishing had become a major problem and was causing Indonesia’s maritime sector to lag behind.

Under the MoUs, the Indonesian government would order the ambassadors to pull their ships from Indonesian waters if they were proven to have entered illegally, she said.

She noted that there were about 1,200 foreign ships flying the Indonesian flag illegally across the archipelago. (alz/ebf)