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What lies behind the concept of the maritime axis is economy

Interview - February 18, 2015

By connecting the eastern part of Indonesia with the western part of Indonesia, the nation will grow economically.

MR. R.J. LINO, PRESIDENT DIRECTOR OF IPC 2 (PELINDO 2)
MR. R.J. LINO | PRESIDENT DIRECTOR IPC 2 (PELINDO 2)

After the recent election of President Jokowi the focus of the world has been on Indonesia. Could you share with us your view on the recent plans of the government for the future?

In my opinion the current government is taking the correct direction by focusing on maritime aspects. For many years Indonesia has been only focusing on matters that concern land. This country really depends on the maritime position it has. 

President Jokowi has a vision for Indonesia to become a maritime power through the realization of the maritime axis.

What lies behind the concept of the maritime axis is economy. By connecting the eastern part of Indonesia with the western part of Indonesia, the nation will grow economically. People in Aceh should be able to do business in Papua. People and goods should be connected economically.

Land transportation is considered to be 96 percent of all transport means in Indonesia. Only 4 percent is transport by water, which is surprising since the country is surrounded by water. A specific example is traveling from Jakarta to Surabaya, a trip of about 800 kilometers long: 90 percent travels by road, 9 percent by sea and 1 percent takes the train. Traveling by sea is supposedly to be cheaper than by road or track.

I believe the concept of the maritime axis is very good, however the implementation will be challenging. It is about changing the mindset of the people. I want to emphasize that the government should reconsider some projects it has planned if it wants to promote maritime transport. People should go by sea and not necessarily by road. Therefore the plans of building a toll road in Sumatra from the north to the south of Sumatra and the plans to develop the Trans-Sumatra railway stretching from Aceh to Lampung doesn’t really coincide with promoting maritime transport. Another example, in my opinion Kalimantan should be focusing more on river transport.

To promote maritime transport, we should also learn from history, where in 1887 the Dutch built a canal from the Port of Tanjung Priok to the center of Batavia (now Jakarta) to transport goods. The canal is now used for flood control, however the canal is quite wide and by heightening the small bridges, a barge with the capacity of a 150 TEU container, should be able to transport goods there. The costs of building a canal are one third of the costs of constructing a toll road.

The advantages of maritime transport are firstly that it reduces the logistic costs. Transport by sea is 1/10th cheaper than transport by road, which also means 1/10th lesser pollution.

Do you believe the other Pelindo’s could benefit by using the option of transport by canal?

Of course, they can develop canal transport in other places as well. Canal transport should not only be used for containers, but also for the transport of coal and other minerals. 

In regards to President Jokowi’s vision for Indonesia to become a maritime power with the concept of the maritime axis, which role will IPC 2 (Pelindo 2) play to achieve this?

To transform Indonesia into a maritime axis, IPC 2 is planning to build three new seaports. Firstly we are developing a new hub port in Sorong (West Papua), which will be replacing the hub port of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the northern part of Australia. With this we are creating another competitive line in order to support Indonesia.

We are also developing a deep-seaport in West Kalimantan with 5,000 hectares of industrial area and at the moment we are completing a feasibility study for a deep-seaport in South Sumatra with an industrial area of 3,000 hectares.

What is the importance of Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta?

In July 2010 we started with the construction of New Priok Port, an extension of Tanjung Priok Port, funded with corporation money (not funded by the government). The construction of this port costs 5 million US dollars. Now the capacity of new Priok Port has doubled.

What is the message for foreign investors, specifically investors from the United Kingdom?

To manage New Priok Port, terminal 1, we cooperate with 3 global operators, Mitsui & Co, Royal Haskoning DHV and PSA International Pte Ltd.

If foreign investors want to build infrastructure here they get profit in return. I welcome them to build infrastructure in Indonesia. For terminal 2 and 3 we are starting a tender very soon, which will also be open to international partners.

I get criticized about my nationalism for not using national operators. I disagree; to me nationalism is serving the people of my country.

How would you describe your leadership?

I am happy when creating new leaders. We invest a lot into the development of new leaders and have already sent 150 young employees with a Bachelor Degree to take their Masters Degrees all over the world. For senior employees we provide an Executive MBA-program. These people are achieving much more than I have done up to this point.

I am not looking for popularity. I am not running for governor or for parliament. I am running a company and I am very tough in making decisions.

How would you attract British tourists to use the cruise ship terminal and stay at the resort you are building in cooperation with Jababeka?

Come to Indonesia and find out for yourself. Indonesia is the biggest democracy in the world.

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