Dr. Cris Kuntadi: Sea Highway Program in Papua is A National Priorities

Jakarta, MINA – Dr Cris Kuntadi, Expert Staff to the Minister of Transportation for Logistics, Multimodal and Transportation Safety at the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation, said that optimizing the sea highway program, especially in the Papua region, is a manifestation of the integrity of the implementation of national priorities in the transportation sector.

“The sea highway program, especially in Papua, is very useful to reduce the price disparity that has existed for quite a long time in the easternmost region of Indonesia,” said Cris to MINA on Thursday.

The Sea Highway in Papua is in line with the implementation of the Public Obligation Service for Pioneer Ships as part of the supporting elements of the Sea Toll and also the construction of people’s ports and pioneer ports.

There is the Land Subsidy and Air Bridge in Papua-West Papua Province, which connects the isolation of mountainous areas.

“With this multimodal, prices are not only cheap in one place, but also cheap to the people of the mountains and coasts that are difficult to reach,” he said.

He hopes that there will be support from the local government on how superior commodity goods from these areas, such as in the Bintang Mountains Regency and others, can be brought to other areas such as the west. So that transfers occur and there is a reduction in cargo balance, from west to east and from east to west, so the price disparity is also low.

As one of the optimization steps, a Coordination Meeting on Monitoring and Evaluation of the Implementation of Presidential Instruction Number 9 of 2020 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in Papua and West Papua Provinces was held with a Socio-Cultural Approach by the Presidential Staff Office which took place in Jayapura City.

The coordination meeting presented several Ministries and Institutions involving the Provincial, City/Regency Governments including the Ministry of Transportation, through one of the UPTs from the Directorate General of Sea Transportation, in this case the Technical Implementation Unit of the Harbormaster Office and the Jayapura Class II Port Authority as well as involving business actors such as the Farmers Alliance, JPT, Consignee, Shipper and also ALFI/ILFA Papua Province.

One of the main topics discussed as a background for changes in development approaches that prioritize Papuan culture and context, which is expected to have implications for the effectiveness of development programs that involve all stakeholders, both the Central Government, Regional Governments, Private Sector, CSOs and the Community, especially Papuan People (OAP).

Jayapura Port which is located in the center of Jayapura City is the center of the largest and busiest port point and is even very busy to serve almost all regencies/cities in Papua Province and areas that directly border such as Keerom Regency, Sarmi Regency, Memberamo Regency and other Regencies even up to neighboring PNG/Papua New Guinea. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)