Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi invites Danish and Norwegian corporations to establish partnerships with Indonesia in the sea transport infrastructure sector.

To support this idea, the Minister said during a meeting event in Jakarta, Monday that he has decided to form a funding team specifically for transport investments.

“Denmark and Norway are homes to some of the most dominant sailing companies in the world and we would like to invite them to develop the Malacca Strait as well as our navigation and sailing sector,” he said.

The Ministry of Transport will ask an Indonesian state-owned enterprise to work alongside Denmark and Norway in developing Malacca Strait.

It is hoped for sailing activities in the Strait to go on smoothly in order to maintain sovereignty as well as shipping safety and security and preserving the marine environment.

Minister Sumadi then hoped for all 33 Danish and Norwegian companies who attended the event to cooperate with Indonesia in expanding the infrastructure sector.

The event itself was organized by the Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Maritime Affair and Fisheries in partnership with the Embassy of Denmark and Embassy of Norway.

Norwegian Ambassador to Indonesia Stig Traavik and Danish Ambassador to Indonesia Casper Klynge also attended the event.

There were 33 Danish and Norwegian corporations participating in the event, in which they offer business cooperation and investments to the Indonesian government and both private and public businesses.

A signing was also carried out by both Ministries in regard to the prevention measures on illegal fishing the Strengthening of the National Fishing Fleet program.

Effort to heighten security for sailing activities in Malacca Strait have also been done by the government, in which the Transport Ministrys Sea Transports Directorate General made agreements with Singapore and Malaysia as sailors from the two countries often sail through the strait.

The Malacca Strait-Singapore route is a considerably crowded path, with up to 80,000 vessels passing back and forth every year, the path has become the meeting point for the boats and a lot of time it causes accidents.

Within the path, a Traffic Separation Scheme have been laid down, in which the deepest part of the Strait is used for vessel traffic from the West to the East while the most shallow area is used for traffic going from East to West as most of those vessels will already be empty.

However, Indonesia is yet to join the Traffic Separation Scheme services because the International Maritime Organization mandate says that navigation and scouting within the track are the Singapore and Malaysia Vessel Traffic Services jurisdiction.

source: antaranews.com