Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, CILACAP | Wed, 06/09/2010 12:21 PM
More than 90 percent of the country's 15.5 million fishermen are living below the poverty line due to an underdeveloped local fishing industry, an official from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry says.
The ministry's director general of fisheries, Dedy Heryadi Sutisna, said that his office was working to improve the situation.
"We are now thinking hard about how to improve the living conditions and dignity of millions of fishermen in Indonesia so they can be as prosperous as fishermen in developed countries," he said during a recent official visit to Cilacap, Central Java.
He said one strategy the ministry was considering was building economic development centers for fishery activities - called "Minapolitan Cities" - in a number of regions that have fishing communities.
"The plan will certainly require the involvement of all stakeholders if it is to be realized and for marine potentials to be fully exploited," he said.
He said that 16 cities and regencies had been designated as guinea pigs for the new centers, including Jakarta and the Cilacap, Pelabuhan Ratu and Bitung regencies.
The ministry, he said, believed the low productivity of the nation's fishermen was largely due to problems in the nation's distribution of fuel, which has suffered numerous hiccups over the last three years since fuel prices were increased across the board in 2007.
"Unless the problem is well taken care of as soon as possible, the Minapolitan City program will be hard to carry out," he said.
Dedy said the nation's fishermen required on average 2.5 million kiloliters of fuel per year.
However, he added, only 1.5 million kiloliters had been designated by the government for the fisheries industry for the period from 2010-2011.
"We can do nothing about *the fuel supply* but propose the amount we need.
"It's fully the authority of Pertamina to manage the fuel distribution," he said, referring to the state-owned oil and gas company.
"Only Pertamina knows exactly why the fuel allocation for fishermen keeps decreasing."
Separately, head of the Cilacap Marine Fishery Port, Mian Sahala Sitanggang, also said there was a lack of fuel supply for fishermen.
Mian said that there was a special fuel station for fishermen in Cilacap managed by KUD Minosaroyo cooperatives.
He said that to supply the 30,000 fishermen in the region, the station needed 1,200 kiloliters of fuel per month.
This demand, he said, would increase sharply during harvest season.
"But in reality, we are only supplied with an average of 950 kiloliters of fuel," Mian said.
