Riffrag Business & Finance Report

The Ministry of Transportation asked to cut the number of open ports for exports and imports in order to reduce the negative impact the implementation of the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) in the shipping sector.

Board Chairman Central Indonesian National Shipowners’ Association (INSA) Johnson W. Sutjipto assess the Asean free trade-China will have a negative impact marine transportation sector.

The influence that, according to him, due to weakening of the marketability of the products in the country, following the rise of China’s products in Indonesia, but most of the distribution of goods using ships.

Johnson said the shipment volume declined nationally threatened as China products easily into Indonesian territory through seaports that had been declared open.

“They can go anywhere via the open port so that the needs of the goods in a particular area can be directly supplied from China and the country’s transport ship. The impact of goods that had been supplied with a national board would be eliminated,” he said.

For example, Johnson said, the ship can enter the China Belawan and unload the cargo without load. After that, the ship toward the Tanjung Priok and do fit before returning to China.

In order not to lose the national ship cargo, he said, the government should immediately cut the number of open ports which now reaches 141.

Johnson considered the number of ports open too much, so the entrance is also not a little import. “Port 10 is open should be enough.”