Heavy price

The Jakarta Post, Wed, 02/17/2010 11:29 AM

Workers at the Sunda Kelapa Port, Jakarta, loading sacks of cement onto a boat heading for Dumai, Riau, on Tuesday. The Business Competition Supervisory Agency (KPPU) said the average price of cement in Indonesia is more expensive than in other countries, with cement costing US$91 per 50 kilogram bag in Indonesia compared to $75 per kilogram in Malaysia and China. JP/Ricky Yudhistira

Pelindo puts in place Priok overhaul plan

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 11/03/2009 9:29 AM

A load off my mind: Loading and unloading activities at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta. State port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II plans to develop Tanjung Priok port into an international hub port with docks 18 meters deep, starting next year. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama

State port operator PT Pelindo II is embarking on a five-year overhaul of Tanjung Priok port to challenge the dominance of Singapore as a regional trade hub, in a process that requires Rp 6 trillion in fresh investment.

“[So far] ships opt to do transshipment in Singapore rather than in Tanjung Priok. Starting next year, we will improve this port, so that we can provide better services and supporting infrastructure for [big] ships,” Pelindo president director Richard J. Lino said on the sidelines of seminar projecting Jakarta as Indonesia’s hub port.

According to Richard, one of the improvements needed is to create a more efficient port administration which will be easier to access.

“We have discussed with the Customs and Excise Office about cutting the document process down to a half day,” he said, adding that currently it needed seven days to process documents in Tanjung Priok, in contrast to one day in Singapore.

According to Richard, due to the limited infrastructure for big ships and the bureaucratic culture, only 40 percent of total loads aimed for export transited via Tanjung Priok, while the rest did their transshipment in Singapore.

In 2008, about 18,000 ships were transiting in Tanjung Priok, carrying 62 million tons of cargo that included 4 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) of containers.

“Hopefully, the hub port, which will be officially in place in 2014, will boost the volume of containers going through Tanjung Priok up to 8 million TEUs from 4 million in 2009,” he said.

He said that besides administration reform, there were other things that needed to be improved at the congested Tanjung Priok to reach the level of a professional hub port.

“We will re-design the port to a depth of 18 meters and some 14 meter-docks for big ships carrying more that 5,000 TEUs of containers,” Richard said.

To facilitate the plan Pelindo will carry out land reclamation from the sea so as to widen the port’s handling capacity, according to Richard.

“We need 300 hectares of additional land. We also need 6 hectares more of parking lots in the port,” he said, adding that the new parking lot would be the biggest in the country.

Currently Tanjung Priok covers 604 hectares of land.

The Transportation Ministry’s director general of sea transportation Sunaryo said that it was not easy to create a hub port because it had to fulfill many criteria.

“The port should be near the international sea lanes and with a minimum depth of 14 meters.

“However, Tanjung Priok is only 11 meters depth. It needs some dredging to make the sea deeper,” Sunaryo said.

He said that the shallowness of the port had caused the port to face difficulties in accommodating ships of more than 200,000 tons .

Pelindo has estimated that the overhaul of Tanjung Priok will require at least Rp 6 trillion (US$610 million).

“We are still trying to get investors,” Richard said.

Pelindo II manages ports in 12 areas across the country including Sunda Kelapa in Jakarta, Banten, Palembang in South Sumatra and Teluk Bayur in West Sumatra.

In the third quarter of this year, the company booked Rp 1.8 trillion in revenue from Rp 2.3 trillion targeted this year.

Related Article:

Indonesia to use Rotterdam Port as example

Museum shows how Jakarta started

Mariani Dewi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 12/13/2008 11:06 AM

The Maritime Museum's exhibition "Jakarta: Built by sea trade and ports" showcases hundreds of years of trading activity at the port that started the city's history.

The organizer hoped the exhibition would draw the government's attention to the site's historical value.

"Jakarta started with the presence of Sunda Kelapa Port, where the traders stopped. Then the city got bigger until today," said Ida Subaedah, head of the administration office at the 9,700-square-meter museum, Thursday.

"The museum, the old spice warehouse, was an integral part of the port and its history should not be neglected."

For the event, there are displays in two rooms providing visitors with evidence of trading. Posters containing the letters of the Ottoman Empire rulers in Turkey show spice relations as early as 1567.

One of the letters tells how the empire took some native plant seeds from the Botanical Gardens in Batavia (the old name for Jakarta) to Turkey.

Replicas of ships from Greece, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden are on show, along with replica Indonesian vessels.

The exhibition will also hold a replica-ship making competition Saturday, with around 200 secondary school students participating. The Swedish Embassy have provided a video presentation about merchant ship Gothenburg.

Although it will draw a crowd, Ida said it was more important to reach out to the government and trade companies.

"We hope this event will impact decision makers to pay more attention to revitalization of the area," she said.

She said the museum had proposed a major redevelopment plan, with the help of a private company. The plan is under the scrutiny of the City Planning office.

"There are a lot of things we can do if there is cross-office cooperation, including cultural tourism, shopping tourism and food tourism. We can have a joint tour with the Luar Batang mosque or Sunda Kelapa Port," she said.

The Jakarta administration will sign a memorandum of understanding with the transportation department early next year to allow the start of cooperation with the port.

Ida said the museum also hoped the event would increase interest among shipping companies and members of the public who had maritime collections to donate or lend their collections to the museum.

"We have a limited budget to acquire new items so we hope the public can share their collection with us," she said.

Volunteers are also welcome to help out the 10 members of the museum, as interpreters or tour guides. As a start, the museum plans to train the boy scouts to be tour guides.

The exhibition ends Dec. 24. Entrance cost to the museum, located on Jl. Pasar Ikan, is Rp 2,000 (17 US cents) for adults, Rp 1,500 for students and Rp 600 for children.

One foot on sea, one on shore

The Jakarta Post, P.J. Leo

Many writers have used references to the vital energy of ports, where workers scramble up masts as ships lie at anchor, taking on and discharging cargo.

Sunda Kelapa Port in northern Jakarta is part of the Old Town heritage site. It was built between 1634 and 1645 by the Dutch governor general J.P. Coen, whose ambition was to recreate Amsterdam in Batavia (Jakarta).

However, long before the Dutch administration reigned the East Indies (Indonesia then), the port had become the docking point for early European merchants, largely the Portuguese.

Now the port is home to inter-city trade, with ships departing and arriving from destinations in Java, as well as Kalimantan and Sulawesi islands, around the clock.

Traditional Bugis schooners or phinisi are a fixture at Sunda Kelapa, their silhouettes creating a distinctive image, from dawn until dusk.

Maritime Museum set to officially reopen

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakartans and tourists alike will once again be able to enjoy the city's Maritime Museum when it officially reopens Friday.

Located next to Sunda Kelapa port, the museum was forced to close its doors when a series of high tides hit the area in November.

Floodwaters reached as high as 60 centimeters, forcing the museum's management team to move relics to the second floor of the building.

Museum head Dewi Rudiati said a series of renovations were undertaken at the museum while it was temporarily closed.

"We made minor changes, such as repainting the walls. Now we are rearranging our displays," she said.

Built in the 17th century, the museum originally served as a Dutch spice warehouse. The museum is now home to about 1,800 relics.

Several Japanese cargo ship replicas are also due to arrive at the museum in a few months.

"Previously we had on average between 1,000 and 1,500 visitors per month. We hope we can continue to attract visitors despite our limited budget," said Dewi.

She said museum staff were currently creating information labels in Indonesian and English to attract more foreign visitors.

She said in June, the museum will hold an exhibition titled "Jakarta, a city that started as a port", which will feature replicas of various ships that have docked in the Sunda Kelapa port over the years.

Lili, a visitor to the museum Wednesday, said she wanted to learn more about the museum after she heard about a wedding ceremony held there.

"This is the first time I've visited the museum," she said.

The resident of Kampung Baru in North Jakarta said she was very satisfied with her visit, despite the fact renovations were still continuing. (tif)

Sunda Kelapa: The no-frills favorite

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It was not yet noon, but the Friday morning heat was such that a group of men had tied shirts around their heads in addition to their caps to protect them from sunburn.

Covered in white dust, the men loaded sacks of cement from a cargo truck into a traditional schooner.

This activity -- a daily routine at the port -- attracted Yannick and Mona, a French couple, strolling along the dock which has a capacity to accommodate 70 schooners.

Photographing and discussing the work, they were also impressed with the long line of vessels with uniquely pointed prows and colorful decorations mooring at Sunda Kelapa Port in North Jakarta.

Sunda Kelapa is the city's most historical port, renowned for phinisi schooners, the traditional vessels of the Bugis people of Sulawesi, still used to deliver goods around the archipelago.

An Australian couple, Pat and Jenny, who had been in the country for one week, were also fascinated by the boats.

"We have wooden boats back in Australia, but they're not like these ones," Pat said.

The phinisi ships at Sunda Kelapa are wooden vessels around 40 meters long and 15 meters wide, with two main masts with seven sails each. The boats have diesel engines they can use alternately with the sails. They can carry up to 950 tons of cargo, which varies from cement and timber, to electronic devices and appliances.

The schooners transport goods across the archipelago, but mainly to Batam island or Pontianak in Kalimantan.

The journey takes up to three full days. Some may return laden with timber from Kalimantan but most return empty to Sunda Kelapa to reload.

John (not his real name), a British man, who for 13 years has been coming to Jakarta for business, said he finds the harbor unique.

"This place offers something very traditional and very Indonesian. The boats are remarkable. You can't find them anywhere else in the world," he said.

Sunda Kelapa's history dates back to the 12th century, when it was the most important harbor of the Pajajaran Kingdom (the area now known as West Java), with trading ships from China, southern India, Japan and the Middle East.

In the 15th century it became the source of a conflict. The port was conquered by Fatahillah on June 22, 1527, marking the birth of Jakarta.

Tanjung Priok, a far more modern harbor not far from Sunda Kelapa, was constructed by the Dutch in 1873 and became one of the most prominent seaports in the country, but Sunda Kelapa maintains activity.

For something different, tourists can take a boat ride across the Dutch-made canal.

Despite being popular among foreign visitors, Sunda Kelapa is not a favorite tourist destination for locals, who prefer modern entertainment centers and shopping malls.

While the area does not see many local tourists, Basri, a 50-year-old Buginese man who takes people across the harbor in his small boat every day, said over the Idul Fitri holidays more visitors had come.

"During the holidays I made more money," he said.

Basri, usually charges locals between Rp 6,000 and Rp 10,000 (US$1), and foreigners Rp 25,000 to Rp 30,000 a trip.

As part of Jakarta's old city, the harbor attracts both locals and foreigners with its schooners, but lacks tourism infrastructure.

Attended parking is available for cars but not for motorcycles.

Tourists are permitted onto schooners to get a look at the old sturdy wooden decks or a feel for the seafaring atmosphere, but first must climb a one-meter high concrete dock curb before reaching the ship.

Sunda Kelapa may serve as a loading and storage facility, but it is not tourist friendly.

Except for warehouses and a stock piling area there's not much more for tourists to see on the dock, which is poorly maintained and partly flooded with seawater.

There are no proper restaurants at Sunda Kelapa either, only street vendors selling cigarettes, peanuts and drinks.

Toilets, another vital facility, are nowhere to be found.

The poor condition of the harbor is a concern for some tourists, like John, even though he enjoys Sunda Kelapa's uniqueness.

"It's just too bad. It has so much potential. There is so much that could be done to the place."