New Joint Venture for Cargo Business

The joint venture is expected to help Indonesia reach its economic potential by streamlining cargo handling

The joint venture is expected to help Indonesia reach its economic potential by streamlining cargo handling

 

Indonesia’s four state-owned port operators announced on Monday that they have signed a joint venture agreement to revitalize the cargo terminal business

 

Each of the operators, Pelindo I, II, III and IV, will hold a 25 percent interest in the joint venture, named “Terminal Petikemas Indonesia.” The venture was established to revitalize domestic cargo handling amid rapidly increasing inter-island trade in the world’s largest archipelago, the port operators said in a joint statement.

Arif Suhartono, formerly director for marketing and business development at Multi Terminal Indonesia, a subsidiary of Pelindo II, has been appointed as the president director of the new joint venture. The president director of Pelindo III, Djarwo Surjanto, is the venture’s president commissioner.

Djarwo said the venture will help reduce “price disparity between the eastern and western part of Indonesia.”

“It will not be a simple matter — there will be challenges and constraints both externally and internally. Therefore, the port operators must act in unison to socialize and implement the program,” he added.

The venture will provide container-handling services and other related services. Its establishment is related with the government’s Nusantara Pendulum program, which will create a single sea corridor for goods movement within Indonesia.

Under the program, a mother ship, owned and operated by the government, will move regularly between the six main seaports and thus reduce logistics costs. The ports are Belawan, Batam, Tanjung Priok, Tanjung Perak, Makassar and Sorong.

The ship will have a capacity of up to 3,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

The government has allocated Rp 1.5 trillion ($155 million) for the first phase of program development. It expects the program can be implemented next year.

High logistics costs — a result of poor infrastructure — have long been considered as the main factor constraining Indonesia’s economic potential. It has also resulted in the growing development gap between provinces across Indonesia.

The government has estimated that the country’s logistics expenditure would be equivalent to 27 percent of gross domestic product this year — around Rp 2,000 trillion.

Indonesia’s rank in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index rose to 2.94 in 2012 from 2.76 in 2010. The index ranges from 1 to 5, with 5 as the highest score.

Last year, Indonesia ranked 59th out of 155 countries on the LPI, which includes several categories including customs, logistics competence and infrastructure.

Fuente: thejakartaglobe, Tito Summa Siahaan /
Foto: thejakartaglobe, Reuters Photo/Yusuf Ahmad / Selección: JLJM

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