[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia govt earmarks Rp15.6 billion for local fisheries

[Joyo at aol.com]

Indonesia govt earmarks Rp15.6 billion for local fisheries

Jakarta (Antara, Sept. 1, 2006) - The government has earmarked Rp15.6 billion 
to finance efforts of improving the quality of local fishery products and 
upgrading human resources in the face of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that 
will begin in January 2007.

"The government and the House of Representatives have the commitment to 
improving the quality of local fishery products," Director General for Processing 
and Marketing of Fishery Products, Martani Husaeni said here on Thursday.

He said that the high quality standards set by the international market had 
hampered the marketing of the country`s local fishery products.

The local fishery products were not able to compete with similar products in 
the world market because of lack of technology, fishing equipment and limited 
processing facilities, he said.

That is why domestic fishery products are not able to compete with those from 
other countries in a certain market which sets high quality standards, such 
as the European Union, he said.

Therefore, he added, the government is preparing funds for the procurement of 
laboratory facilities and for training human resources so that they would 
have knowledge about fishing technologies.

The director general said the government would at the end of this year 
upgrade the country`s laboratory facilities in a number of fishery production 
centers in Surabaya, Jakarta and South Sulawesi.

The laboratory equipment that will be upgraded included the equipment for 
chemical test and microbiology test, he said.

"By doing so, our fishery products would meet the quality standard set by 
importing countries and would compete with those of neigbouring nations," the 
director general added.

Martani said the implementation of the ASEAN free market would actually 
provide promising chances for Indonesia`s fishery products.

He said Indonesia remained the biggest country with fishery potentials 
compared with other ASEAN member nations, particularly Thailand.

Martini said the Indonesian government had also revoked the licenses for 
fishing in Indonesian waters of overseas` fishing vessels from several countries.

"This August, the licenses of fishing vessels from the Philippines and 
Thailand have been revoked. The government will also revoke the licenses of those 
coming from China in July 2007," he added.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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