A business lobby group is demanding that the government designate separate seaports for exports and imports to overcome gridlock in the country’s biggest trade gateway, Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta.
Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Sofjan Wanandi said on Monday that the lengthy dwelling time at the port resulted in high business costs that burdened business players and moreover, markedly disrupted international trade activities.
“We certainly cannot do business as usual, and certainly require a drastic change. Otherwise, both exports and imports will be impacted,” he told reporters after a meeting with Industry Minister MS Hidayat.
Exports and imports in Southeast Asia’s top economy have grown to record highs in recent years, with last year seeing exports reaching US$190.03 billion and imports settling at $191.69 billion.
In line with significant surges in overseas trade activities, the dwelling time at Tanjung Priok Port which shoulders more than 70 percent of incoming and outgoing goods, has further expanded in the past few years, peaking to eight days this year from 6.5 days last year.
Indonesia’s dwelling time ranked highest compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors, including Singapore (1.2 days) and Thailand (five days).
In the past few weeks, poor performance in Tanjung Priok Port has raised deep concerns among business players as it could process only 170 containers on a daily basis, far fewer than the 600 containers that it should tackle, according to an estimate by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).
The slow handling activities at the port caused Rp 4.8 billion ($472,209) per day in losses for exporters and importers, Kadin’s recent statistics reveal.
A quick solution to accelerate exports would be to build a new seaport to mainly serve exports in Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (KBN) industrial bonded zone in North Jakarta, Sofjan said.
KBN, which covers Marunda, Cakung and Tanjung Priok, currently serves as an export-processing zone (EPZ) that hosts more than 100 factories.
On the other hand, to cope with big inflows of overseas goods, particularly raw materials and intermediary goods, the government should allow a special verification process, with importers and importer producers getting their purchased items checked at their own warehouses instead at the densely occupied Tanjung Priok Port, Sofjan added.
In response to the demand from local business players, the Industry Minister said breakthroughs were needed at the heavily congested port as the problems could further hurt both exporters and importers if they remained unsolved.
“We must [first] realize the plan to build a new container port in KBN. At least that can be a temporary alternative due to inefficiency at Tanjung Priok. If such inefficiency continues, our industry will suffer bigger losses and undermine the competitive edge of local businesses,” Hidayat said.
“The verification at warehouses of each importing firm would be feasible as an emergency solution to temporarily ease overloads at the port, but should be followed by stricter customs procedures,” he added.
Source:-www.thejakartapost.com
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