In seven years, the maritime highway has served 32 routes, operated 32 ships, visited 114 ports
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Investor Daily - Tujuh Tahun Tol Laut Layani 32 Trayek, Operasionalkan 32 Kapal, Singgahi 114 Pelabuhan
22 October 2021
The Transportation Ministry through the Sea Transportation Directorate General is continuously optimising the Organisation of Public Service Obligation for Goods Transportation at Sea program, also known as the maritime highway. When it was launched on 20 October 2014, the national strategic program continued to be improved and developed in terms of the number of routes and ports, capacity, and cargo volume.
Acting Sea Transportation Director General, Arif Toha, mentioned that, entering its seventh year, the maritime highway program had operated 32 routes with 32 ships that visited 114 ports, including routes to Papua and West Papua.
“The central government and regional governments are synergising every stage of the national transportation system and the national logistics system,” he stated.
Arif said that, based on the evaluation in the first half of 2021, the maritime highway program had carried 6,617 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers with cement, rice, and mineral water as the dominating commodities. There are also 2,542 TEUs of return cargo with commodities such as wood, copra, and seaweed with a voyage realisation of 54% compared to 2020.
“The maritime highway performance this year is more effective compared to last year. This can be realised thanks to the efforts of all ministries/institutions, regional governments, technical implementation units, and operators that have conducted socialisations and supervisions to related players,” he stated.
Based on the data of the Trade Ministry, citizens in regions where the maritime highway goes through have enjoyed lower prices by around 20% to 50%. The data shows that the maritime highway program has successfully lowered price disparity that has been faced by citizens in eastern Indonesia as well as in underdeveloped, remote, outermost, and border regions.
Meanwhile, Traffic and Sea Transportation Director, Mugen Sartoto, stated that the Transportation Ministry had conducted innovations and breakthroughs to support the national food sustainability program by creating a new trade pattern from new food estates, such as Merauke, to other regions such as Papua, West Papua, and East Nusa Tenggara.
According to him, to realise the food sustainability program, the Transportation Ministry is accommodating the needs of citizens through sea transportation services to make sure scheduled cargo transportation routes and basic necessities are available.
“This maritime highway program is also expected to improve distribution and maintain the availability of basic necessities, important goods, and other types of goods with cheaper logistics costs to lower price disparity,” Mugen said.
Mugen stated that the Transportation Ministry has realised multimodal connectivity in accommodating the new trade pattern by involving ‘airbridges’ and subsidised land transportation. The target is for citizens in the mountains of Papua being able to order basic necessities from Surabaya and directly receiving them in the mountains of Papua.
Support must also be provided in the form of regulations. He said that, to facilitate logistics distribution, the government had issued Presidential Regulation Number 27 of 2021 on Implementation of Obligation on Public Service for Freight Transportation from and to Underdeveloped, Remote, Outermost, and Border Areas. The presidential regulation is supporting the optimisation of maritime highway ships at ports and goods supervision from unloading ports to hinterlands (the area around a port).
