Bantul prepares health centers for seasonal increase

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Bantul

Community Health Centers in Bantul, Yogyakarta, one of Indonesia's major tourist destinations, are ready to serve patients over the Christmas holiday.

The centers will be opened 24-hours-a-day to anticipate an increase in the number of patients.

"We ask all health clinics to expand their services during the holiday season due to an increase in the number of tourists in Yogyakarta. We have to prepare ourselves to anticipate a rising number of patients here," said head of Bantul Health Office Siti Noor Zainab.

She said 16 of the 27 clinics in Bantul had hospital beds and most of them were located along main city roads, as well as on tourist routes.

"So, residents or tourists who need health services can be assisted," she added.

Parangtritis Search and Rescue (SAR) team secretary Taufik F Usman said 50 SAR team members had been assigned to guard beaches to anticipate any incidents over the holiday.

"We predict the number of tourists visiting beaches in the area will increase sharply. Therefore, we have appointed 50 of our 73 SAR team members to safeguard the most popular beaches, including Parangtritis, Depok, Samas and Pandansimo," he said.

According to data from the Yogyakarta Tourism Agency, the number of foreign tourists visiting the province tumbled from around 120,000 in 2005 to only 60,000 in 2006, after a powerful earthquake devastated Yogyakarta and its surroundings.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals to Yogyakarta is projected to rise again to about 70,000 by the end of this year.

Data also shows the number of local tourists to the province dropped to around 1.4 million in 2006 from 2 million in 2005, and is projected to increase to 1.6 million by the year end.

He added all of the SAR members had been equipped with rubber rafts, life vests and communication tools.

He said personnel would set up warning signs at several dangerous beaches to prevent tourists from swimming there.

"Nature-lover organizations from universities in Yogyakarta will also help us safeguard the beaches," he said.

Occupancy rates of hotels in Yogyakarta usually increase sharply during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Public Relations Manager of the Malioboro Ibis Hotel Eunike Martanti said all 148 of the hotel's rooms had been booked from Dec. 21 up to the end of the year.

She predicted the occupancy rate would return back to normal, to around 50 to 60 percent, by the beginning of January.

Public Relations Manager of the Yogyakarta Hyatt Hotel Erika said 80 percent of the 269 rooms at the hotel had been booked for the holidays.

Travel agents in Yogyakarta are also experiencing an increase in the number of ticket and tourism pack

Indonesian authorities struggle to salvage tanker: official

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian port authorities were struggling to salvage a small fuel tanker that capsized this week at a port in the country's second city of Surabaya, the port master said Friday.

"We're still working hard to turn the tanker upright, but are still unable to do so," Tanjung Perak port master Rocky Ahmad Suherman told AFP.

The locally owned and operated Karisma Selatan, which has a capacity of 500,000 litres (132,000 gallons), capsized after its hold was filled with an unknown amount of marine fuel at the port on Tuesday. Nobody was injured.

Suherman said that two sea cranes had tried to shift it, with two tugboats equipped with firefighting equipment on stand-by. Rubber booms remained in place around the ship in case of a serious leak, he added.

Dirty fuel has been leaking from the tanker's engine but no leak has come from its hold, Suherman said.

An investigation into what caused the mishap is underway, with preliminary results reportedly suggesting the ship's ballast had not been filled correctly.

NSW scheme to be rolled out in nine more ports

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government hopes to expand the National Single Window (NSW) scheme, an on-line permit service for importers and exporters -- first introduced earlier this week at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok Port -- to nine more major ports next year.

"So far, it's been successful at Tanjung Priok Port.

"And we expect that ten big ports, including Tanjung Priok Port, will be served by the scheme by the end of 2008, at the latest," said Edy Putra Irawadi, a deputy to the coordinating minister for economics, on Thursday.

By next April, he said, the government would introduce the system at Belawan Port in North Sumatra, Tanjung Mas in Central Java, Tanjung Perak in East Java, and Makasar Port in South Sulawesi.

The extension of the scheme to another five ports -- Panjang in South Sumatra, Pontianak in West Kalimantan, Batam, Bali and Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan -- was expected to follow later in the year.

Last Monday, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati officially launched the first stage of NSW and its web portal -- http://www.insw.go.id.

During the first stage, five government agencies out of the 36 with responsibilities in the export/import field, have adopted the system, namely, the Customs Office, Food and Drug Control Agency, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Animal Quarantine Center and the Agricultural Quarantine Center.

Currently, however, only 100 importers -- the beneficiaries of the so-called fast-track priority facility operated by the port authority -- are able to benefit from the scheme.

The priority facility, which grants importers preferential treatment for goods inspection at the port, is restricted to firms that have a proven track record and have never violated the regulations.

As for exporters, they will not be eligible to receive such treatment during the first phase of the NSW scheme, which is expected to end before April, when the second phase is scheduled to commence.

"We hope that by April next year, when we launch a common portal, the work of all the 36 agencies will be integrated in the NSW system, as well as other importers and exporters, so that we can simplify permit processing and curtail corruption," Edy said,

"There used to be a lot of redundancies involved as regards the necessary documents, unnecessary payments and convoluted bureaucracy."

He said that under the new service, an importer would only need 7.5 hours to get the necessary clearances to recover their shipments from the port authority, must faster than previously, when several days might be required.

The new service would also significantly reduce costs.

Edy said the NSW scheme had also simplified the job of the relevant government agencies, adding that the 23 biggest ports in Indonesia had to process 4.5 million export and import documents every year.

Jakarta warned of Christmas tidal floods

JAKARTA (Jakarta Post): A second high tide in less than a month is likely to hit Jakarta's shores on Dec. 23 and 24, said an Indonesian-Dutch tidal monitoring body.

The city's public works body said it has moved into preparatory mode and is repairing coastal embankments in seven areas in North Jakarta.

Jakarta Flood Project, the Indonesian-Dutch partnership, said it has closely monitored tide levels and has calculated sea water levels on Dec. 23 and 24 would be as high as Nov. 26, when high-tides caused traffic mayhem along the city's airport toll road.

"Sea water levels are already very high," project leader Jan Jaap Brinkman was quoted in an email sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

"The 190 centimeter mark was reached at Pasar Ikan (Jakarta's fish market) today," Jan Jaap said.

"Tomorrow levels will increase again."

"It is almost certain that sea water levels will reach the same levels as on Nov. 26."

Naval base offers rewards to fishermen reporting smuggling activity

Pangkalpinang (ANTARA News) - The Bangka Belitung Naval Base Tuesday offered rewards to fishermen who can provide information to uncover tin smuggling, illegal fishing and illegal log trading activities.

"We hope local fishermen can provide such information. We cannot fight the illegal activities alone as Bangka Belitung is mostly made up of waters so smuggling activity can happen almost anywhere in the province," Bangka Belitung Naval Base Commander Col M. Zainuddin said on Wednesday.

But he stopped short of revealing what the rewards would be.

He said he had the impression that local fishermen who had seen or knew about strange things happening at sea were often afraid to report to the security agencies.

Bali`s canned fish exports jump to $10 million

Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - Bali province`s canned fish exports in the first ten months of 2007 jumped 120 percent to US$10.8 million from a year earlier.

Canned fish exports in the January-October 2007 period more than trippled in volume to 5,572 tons from 1,865 tons in the same period last year, Ni Wayan Kusumawathi, chief of the foreign trade division at the Bali Industry and Trade Office, said on Tuesday.

The canned fish exports went to the United States, Japan, Taiwan, China and the European Union, she said.

Overall, the province`s fishery exports in the first ten months of 2007 rose 28.8 percent to US$56.6 million compared to US$43.9 million in the same period last year, she said.

Fresh and frozen tunas dominated the fishery exports with a value of US$47 million, followed by the grouper with US$3.4 million.

CP Prima signs agreement with shrimp farmers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The world's biggest shrimp producer, PT Central Proteinaprima (CP Prima), signed a key partnership agreement Monday with local shrimp farmers supplying the company's subsidiary, PT Aruna Wijaya Sakti.

The farmers work 17,870 shrimp ponds covering some 16,030 hectares of land in Lampung that is owned by Aruna Wijaya Sakti, formerly known as PT Dipasena Citra Darmaja -- which was once the biggest shrimp producer in Southeast Asia.
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Under the agreement, CP Prima, under the supervision of Aruna, will apply its technology to boost shrimp production in the farmers' ponds, and the farmers in return will sell their produce directly to the firm, thereby increasing its exports of frozen shrimp, said operations director Mahar Sembiring.

The agreement also incorporates international standard operating procedures for sustainable and optimum shrimp farm production, he added.

"We believe that this agreement will benefit both sides as it provides commercial certainty," he said.

Indonesian Association of Fisheries Enterprises chairman Herwindo echoed Mahar's view, saying that the partnership would increase CP Prima's frozen shrimp exports and improve the incomes of shrimp farmers.

He said the agreement would also benefit the government through increased exports and employment.

CP Prima, the biggest integrated shrimp producer in the world and Indonesia's market leader in shrimp fry, shrimp feed and fish-feed production, acquired the former Dipasena through a tender in May.

Besides Aruna Wijaya Sakti, CP Prima has two other subsidiaries engaged in the same business in Lampung -- PT Central Pertiwi Bahari and PT Wachyuni Mandira (WM).

It now has 50,000 hectares devoted to shrimp farms and provides more than 38,000 jobs, including 12,500 full-time jobs.

In mid-November, CP Prima signed a similar partnership agreement with local shrimp farmers grouped under WM, which also involved what is known in Indonesia as a nucleus-plasma scheme (the company being the nucleus, the farmers the plasma). (ind)

Govt to install 23 tsunami buoys until late 2008

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has set itself the target of installing 23 tsunami buoys in Indonesian waters until the end of 2008, an official said.

"One of the tsunami buoys has already been put in place in the southern part of the Sunda Strait," Ridwan Djamaludin, head of the oceanographic survey unit at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Techonology (BPPT), said here on Monday.

Eleven of the tsunami buoys were locally made, he said, adding that 10 units were produced in Germany and the rest in the United States.

The tsunami buoys would be installed at a depth of 2,054 meters below the sea level, Ridwan said at a media briefing about a "tsunami drill" to be carried out in Banten province on December 26, 2007.

He said the tsunami buoys would directly transmit data to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG).

"We checked the tsunami buoys` sophistication on December 14 including the water height," he said, adding that the tsunami buoys were equipped with sensors and data transmission instruments.

Ridwan said the government would conduct an evacuation exercise involving 10,000 people in Banten`s coastal area on December 26 witnessed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhohono.

The first evacuation drill was carried out in Padang, West Sumatra, on December 26, 2005 followed by the second one in Bali on December 26, 2006.

Australia has repatriated 16 Indonesian "boat people"

Brisbane (ANTARA News) - As many as 16 Indonesiawn boat people including 10 children who had been held at a detention centre on Christmas Island, Western Australia, had been repatriated on Saturday (Dec 15), a diplomat has said.

Indonesian Consul in Perth, capital of Western Australia, Dr Aloysius L.Madja who is now in Jakarta after accompanying the Indonesians on their flight to Jakarta arriving in the Indonesian capital on Saturday, told ANTARA News in Brisbane on Sunday that he and deputy consul for social, cultural and information affairs Ricky Suhendar were flew on a chartered Australian plane to Indonesia.

"Now I am in Jakarta. Yesterday (Saturday) we accompanied Australian Immigration officials who brought the 16 Indonesians from Christmas Island and flew to Jakarta where we arrived at 2.30 p.m.," he said.

Aloysius earlier said his side had already checked that the 16 people were really Indonesians and handed their travel documents in lieu of passports to the Australian Immigration officials.

"In an interview, the family heads of the 16 Indonesians said actually their destination was not Australia, but Saumlaki in Indonesia`s Southeast Maluku," he said.

However, as their boat had engine trouble, they continued their trip after setting up a sail, but the blew them to Southeast and eventually entered Australian territorial waters, he said.

Two of the three family heads were identified as Suwardi and Sukardi Liri from Rote Island in Indonesia`s East Nusa Tenggara province, Aloysius said.

"On their arrival at the Soekarno Hatta airport, they were handed over by the Australian immigration officials to Pak (Mr) Teguh Wardoyo, Foreign Ministry`s director for protection of Indonesian corporate bodies and citizens," he said.

On the health condition of the 16 people, he said they looked healthy and happy as they were back home, but they did not want to return to their village but rather to Mola, Wangi-Wangi subdistrict, Buton district, Southeast Sulawesi.

Scheduled to leave for Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi on Monday (Dec 17) they stayed in Jakarta in Jakarta under the auspices of the International Organization for Migration, he said.

It was reported that the cost of their flight to Jakarta was paid by the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, he added.

The Australian government`s decision to repatriate the 16 people was submitted to the Australian Immigration and Citizenship Minister Senator Chris Evans on December 7.

After being detained for several weeks on Christmas Island, the 16 Indonesians were repatriated following interviews and medical examinations.

The Australian minister said his ministry very carefully interviewed the `boat people` to ensure that their entry into Australia was really an accident.

Senator Evans also said that according to reports the Indonesians did not tell about any issue which may prompt Australia to feel obliged to give them protection under the Convention on Refugees.

He said he is a firm supporter of the Convention on Refugees and Australia one of the three countries which had accepted refugees to stay.

Before being detained on Christmas Island, the 16 people were rescured by Australian patrol boats HMAS Ararat and HMAS Tarakan when their boat sank some 650 kilometers west of Darwin, Northern Territory, on November 20, 2007.

Meanwhile, former fishery minister under the PM John Howard administration, Eric Abetz, refused to help the 16 Indonesians who were facing Australian law on eradication of poaching in the country`s territorial waters.

Abetz made the decision on his refusal following local mass media reports that the 16 people who were resolved to leave their hometown in Rote Island for Australia were small fishermen.

Abetz said it was not his business to deal with the Indonesian fishermen if they could no longer fish on the Australian waters.

ABC reported the Indonesians from Rote Island were fishermen who were affected by the Australian government`s stern measures to stamp out poaching.

The Australian government spent 603 million dollars on coping with poaching in its waters. The measure has dropped the number of poaching cases on its territorial waters in the north to 90 percent.

In the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Indonesian and Australian govenments in November, 1974, known as MoU Box 1974, Australia still recognized the rights of Indonesian traditional fishermen who have been earning a living from marine resources along the northern part of the west coast and around that the coral reefs in the past centuries.

Australia still allowe Indonesian traditional fishermen to take water and fish on islands the two countries had agreed on in the agreement.

However, Australia then declared the area as a national park.

Under the 1974 MoU, the areas where Indonesian traditional fishermen could fish as agreed to by the two countries are Scott and Seringapatam reefs, Browse Island, Ashmore reef, Cartier Island and surrounding waters.

Indonesia loses Rp30 trillion per year by illegal fishing

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Illegal fishing in Indonesian waters is causing a financial loss of Rp30 trillion a year to the country, Maritime and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said here Friday.

"Immaterial losses from illegal fishing include coral reef damage due to the use of explosives and potassium in the activity," he said on the sidelines of a coordinative meeting on fishery resources protection.

He said the coral reef ecosystem was of vital importance to the survival of submarine biota.

Illegal fishing by foreign fishermen were also a threat to the country`s sovereignty.

Numberi said eradicating illegal fishing activity was one of his ministry`s priority programs which would continue to be implemented over the next five years.

Therefore, fishery resource monitoring should be intensified as it was playing a significant role in upholding the law in Indonesian waters.

"Of course we also need the support of regional governments," he added.

The maritime and fisheries sector, he said, had a competitive ability to move the national economy.

The fisheries sub-sector`s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had increased by 18 percent in 2006. Fishery production in 2005-2006 increased by an average of 7.64 percent.

Fishery exports in 2006 totaled 1.02 million tons and added US$2.08 billion to the country`s foreign exchange earnings.

Ironically, the country`s fishery resources were being seriously threatened by the wide-spread use of irresponsible management and exploitation methods, he said.

Indonesia to deport 400-plus Thai, Vietnamese fishing vessel crews

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will soon deport more than 400 Vietnamese and Thai nationals who had served as the crews of foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in Indonesian waters, Maritime and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said here Friday.

"We have to deport them. Now, there are more than 400 Thai and Vietnamese fishing vessel crew members waiting to be deported," the minister said on the sidelines of a coordinative meeting on maritime and fishery monitoring in 2007.

The deportation would be done in coordination with several other government agencies, he said.

During 2007, a total of 200 foreign fishing vessels that had entered Indonesian waters illegally were captured by Indonesian security personnel.

The vessels` skippers and chief engineers were tried in courts of law while the rest of the crews would be deported, Numbery said.

Meanwhile, the director general of monitoring at the maritime and fisheries ministry, Aji Sularso, said the 400-plus foreign fishing boat crews were currently being held in Riau province and in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

They would be moved from Riau and Pontianak to Jakarta before being deported to their home countries.

The Vietnamese government had agreed that the Vietnamese crews would be sent home on Indonesian airline flights, while Thailand was planning to send a Hercules aircraft to Indonesia to pick up the Thai sailors.

Aji said, the deportation would be done in consideration of Indonesia`s diplomatic ties with the two Southeast Asian countries.

While the Vietnamese and Thai boat crews would be deported, their boats would remain in Indonesia, he added.

RI gets US$33.3 million for coral reef management

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has received funds amounting to US433.3 million for coral reef management under the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), an official said.

The funds were among other things received from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) (US$25 million), the United States (US$4,3 million), and the Asian Development Bank (US$2 million), Saut P Hutagalung, head of the data, statistics and information Center of the marine and fishery ministry, said here on Thursday.

Indonesia also got US$1.4 million from Australia, US$500,000 from the Nature Conservancy (TNC), as well as technical assistance, facilities and grants from Conservation International (CI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), he said.

"The commitment of funding support from several donor countries and institutions was agreed on at a senior official-level meeting of CTI in Bali last week," he said.

The CTI groups Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands and Timor Leste (CT-6).

The CT-6 covered a total area of 75,000 square km and had 500 species of coral reef which is habitat of more than 3,000 fish species.

"The coral reef area is also known as the Amazon of The Seas because it has the world`s richest biodiversity," he said.

The coral reefs in the area are food sources for 120 million inhabitants of the coastal areas, breeding areas for tuna, and a regional economic source with an estimated money circulation amounting to 2.3 million US dollars per year, he said.

The CTI agreement would be formally signed during the World Ocean Conference (WOC) which will be held in Manado in 2009, he said.

He said coral reefs had a number of crucial functions such as to support food sources for coastal areas` inhabitants, ecotourism and to protect coastal areas from tropical cyclones or tsunami.

Electronic sea charts launched

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Navy launched its new Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) on Tuesday, expecting to provide more accurate navigational data at sea than manual charts.

The ENC, a compact disc containing navigational charts displayed by an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), was put together by the Navy's Hydrographic Agency.

Chief of the Hydrographic Agency, Commodore Willem Rampangilei, said the ENC would provide a number of advantages, including accident alarms and continuous ship positioning.

"It also takes a shorter time to determine the movement of ships and get other navigational data with the ENC," Willem told a media conference after the launch of the ENC aboard the KRI Leuser, a Navy ship used for navigational mapping and research purposes.

The Hydrographic Agency, with the support of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO), the Marine Port Authority of Singapore and the Japan Hydrographic Association (JHA), has completed electronic charts for sea traffic at 18 out of a total of 25 international ports in Indonesia.

The agency aims to complete the rest in 2009 in accordance with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) convention on the Safety of Life at Sea, which Indonesia has ratified.

The convention obliges IMO members to apply the ENC in their navigational systems by July 1, 2010 at the latest. Some 35 countries out of the total 167 IMO member countries, including Indonesia, have applied the ENC in their navigational systems.

The Navy earlier this year also launched an ENC for the sea route connecting Malacca and Singapore Straits. The ENC, which was produced by both Indonesia and Singapore, was part of the ocean traffic system operated in three different regions in Indonesia, namely the west, central and east territorial waters.

Navy deputy chief Rear Adm. Didik Heru said the ENC did not only represent the country's ability to develop its own ENC, but also reflected its commitment to complying with international navigation safety standards.

"Indonesia's maritime area, connecting Asia and Australia, is known for its high traffic frequency by international fleets. If Indonesia does not have ENCs at its international ports, it will hamper foreign ships from traveling here."

Captain Robert Ward, the director of the International Hydrographic Bureau, who attended Tuesday's event, said the world community and particularly the maritime sector would benefit from ENCs, which covered very important trade routes and ports in Indonesia.

"A concern has been that while ECDIS equipment (the ENC displayer) has been available for some time and mariners are ready and waiting to use the systems, the necessary official electronic charts have been missing for some key areas of the world."

"Today's launching marks a big step forward in filling in one of those key areas. It sets an example for others to follow," said Ward.

While the homemade ENC was launched Tuesday, unofficial ENCs have been on sale locally for some time.

Commodore Willem reminded mariners of the danger of using those unofficial ENCs as the contents could not be held accountable. "Customers will soon be able to get the official ENC after it appoints an authorized distributor." (lln)

Army, police posts vital to protect outer islands

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam

The government has been advised to immediately station troops and set up police posts in outlying border areas to anticipate problems that may arise, a legislator says.

Deputy speaker of Commission I on Defense at the House of Representatives Yusron Ihza Mahendra said Tuesday the Indonesian Military (TNI) should speed up the deployment of battalions to strategic border areas, as surveillance on outer islands was still inadequate.

"The TNI will place troops in strategic border areas with neighboring countries. Commission I strongly supports the move so we can overcome problems in border areas and increase surveillance on outer islands," Yusron said on the sidelines of a meeting with the Riau Police top brass in Batam.

Yusron did not specify the number of battalions to be deployed or where they would be set up. He only pointed out Commission I had given approval and that the plan would soon be implemented.

Aside from widespread smuggling in the border zones, Indonesian fishermen have often been driven out by foreign authorities that blame them for trespassing into their territories. This, Yusron said, would not be the case if there were Indonesian military or police patrols.

Another problem, he said, is the reported sale of islands to foreigners in Riau Islands province.

"Deployment of military personnel to border zones is crucial in order to safeguard our territories from the threat of foreign parties."

Riau Islands Police chief Brig. Gen. Sutarman said his office had posted three officers on each of the inhabited islands.

The provincial police have placed their officers on more than 10 outer islands in an effort to beef up security and prevent the islands from changing hands.

Sutarman said the deployment of police personnel to outer islands was part of their commitment to oversee border areas.

Based on a consent, the TNI will deploy Marine or Army troops to the outer islands, while the inhabited islands will be manned by police personnel.

"We will build police posts if possible. We have proposed to build police stations there," Sutarman said.

Currently, there are 92 outer islands bordering neighboring countries, 19 of which are in Riau Islands province. Natuna regency consists of 12 islands located between Malaysian Borneo and the Malaysian mainland. The islands include Tokong Malang Biru, Damar, Mangkai, Tokong Nanas, Tokong Berlayar, Tokong Boro, Semiun, Sebetul, Sekatung, Senua, Subi Kecil and Kepala islands.

Bintan regency includes Sentut Island near Singapore, Karimun regency encompasses Iyi Kecil and Karimun Kecil islands, also near Singapore, and Batam includes Nipah, Pelampong, Batu Behanti and Nongsa islands.

Navy preparing 20 warships for joint exercise in Sengata

Balikpapan (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Navy was preparing the operation of 20 warships for a joint exercise in Sengata, East Kalimantan.

A spokesman for the Balikpapan Naval Base, Major Arif, said here on Tuesday the presence of the warships from the Eastern Fleet was only aimed at supporting the operation of the naval exercise which would take place from December 14 to 16, 2007.

In addition, the navy will also deploy around 1,200 troops to support the exercise. "We will also operate the latest warships Indonesia has just bought like KRI Surabaya and KRI Diponegoro," he said.

KRI Diponegoro is a Corvette of SIGMA class (Ship Integrated Geometrical Modularity Approach) recently purchased from Royal Schelde in the Netherlands.

"The vessel seems to be Indonesia`s most sophisticated warship," Arif said, adding that KRI Surabaya is a landing platform dock (LPD) capable of carrying 400 naval personnel.

Some 122 meters long and 22 meters wide, the vessel which was built in Korea was equipped with 40 mm cannons and 20 mm machine guns.

Enmeshed: Australia and South-East Asia’s fisheries

Onlineopinion.com

By Meryl Williams and Malcolm Cook - posted Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Distressing and perhaps threatening stories, depending on your perspective, of Indonesian fishing vessels apprehended in Australia’s northern waters have become common. We explore what is driving this phenomena and what can Australia do about it.

The Indonesian fishing transgressions are but one relatively minor, though significant manifestation of what is happening in fisheries in the South-East Asian region, and indeed globally. The history of fishing shows that fish stocks that are not properly managed end up threatened with survival. This lesson is stark for Australia and its neighbours in South-East Asia who are enmeshed through connections over fish - connections that become problematic when they threaten the basis of good fisheries management and are explored in more depth in a recent Lowy Institute paper.

Australia manages and protects its fish stocks better than most. The Commonwealth, State and Territory governments share the burden of responsibility. They use scientific, economic and environmental advice and consult with fishers and the public. The main management goals are sustaining the fisheries resources and their environment, supporting economically viable commercial fishing industries and vibrant recreational fishing.

To our north, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines are now in the top 12 fish producing countries in the world. Nearly 100 million people are directly dependent on the fishing industries and their related service sectors and nearly all South-East Asians eat fish.

Australia’s connections with South-East Asia are important for Australia’s own fisheries management. The key connections are, first, fish trade. Australia imports more than half its fish because its own fish catch is small, though high value. Three times as much will be imported by 2050. South-East Asia supplies almost half Australian fish imports. Thailand and Vietnam are number one and three fish suppliers, respectively. Yet, South-East Asian large marine fish resources face big problems.

The second key connection is illegal cross-border fishing, especially by vessels from Indonesia, a world fishing giant. Even a small fraction of its huge fishing fleet presents a threat to Australian fish resources. Illegal cross-border fishing is an unwelcome connection between countries throughout South-East Asia, and not an Australian problem alone.

The third connection is the challenge of managing shared fish stocks such as sharks and snappers. These stocks can be overfished if over fishing is happening on just one side of the border.

The fourth connection concerns tuna stocks that Australia cares about. Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines feature prominently in southern bluefin, Pacific and Indian ocean tuna fishing and trade.

Read More ....

N. Sulawesi to tap natural resources to raise incomes

Jongker Rumteh, The Jakarta Post, Manado

The North Sulawesi provincial administration is striving to tap the region's natural resources to diversify its revenue base.

To realize its goals, the administration has embarked on various initiatives, including its decision to host the World Ocean Conference in the North Sulawesi capital of Manado in 2009.

"I want support from all sides for the conference as it will not only promote North Sulawesi to other regions throughout Indonesia, but also to the world," North Sulawesi Governor Sinyo Harry Sarundajang said.

"I'm pretty sure the conference's success will be followed not only by higher exports from the province, but also increasing numbers of tourists," he said.

Sarundajang's optimism is based on the assumption that the international conference will be attended by between 2,500 and 3,000 participants, including heads of government from various countries, scientists, investors, NGO representatives and journalists.

The participants will discuss current international maritime issues, and the use of marine resources to promote the welfare of all human beings.

The governor said he had discussed the plan with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vice President Jusuf Kalla and a number of Cabinet ministers in 2006. Further, he had also visited the United Nations Headquarters in New York to secure support and sponsors.

Sarundajang said he hoped the central government would fund a number of projects to support the holding of the conference, such as the expansion of Sam Ratulangi airport, the widening of some major roads, and the construction of conference venues. He also urged investors to build more hotels in Manado to accommodate the expected large number of visitors.

"I want Indonesia to become a center of marine research. I expect that by holding the conference, marine tourism in North Sulawesi, and all over Indonesia, will grow significantly," Sarundajang said.

He said that besides the conference, the provincial administration was also promoting a number of other sectors to help promote public welfare.

"We have tried, for example, to eliminate poverty around the province by implementing programs in a number of sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries and tourism," Sarundajang said.

The administration has also successfully encouraged people to plant corn on more than 80,000 hectares of fallow land. At least 16,000 people have participated in the corn-planting drive over the last two planting seasons.

It has also promoted seaweed cultivation on over 400 hectares of coastal land in projects that now employ about 4,000 workers, the processing of virgin coconut oil (VCO) involving 100 farmers' groups that now produce 40 tons of VCO every six months, and the cultivation of castor plants on more than 3,000 hectares to produce castor oil as an alternative fuel.

The North Sulawesi administration has also provided low-interest loans to develop micro industry.

In the education sector, the administration has provided scholarships and extra allowances for part-time teachers.

Provincial data shows that economic growth came in at 4.9 percent in 2005 and 5.87 percent in 2006, and is expected to hit up to 6.30 percent this year.

The number of tourists also increase from 19,940 in 2005 to 22,328 persons in 2006, according to the figures.

The governor said that he would continue trying to improve the business climate, and provide both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to attract investors.

Sarundajang also criticized the many local administrations that depended heavily on the central government for funding.

He also said that central and local government needed to establish good cooperation so as to help improve people's living conditions.

High tide floods coastal subdistrict

JAKARTA (Jakarta Post): The combination of a high tide and high rainfall Sunday inundated hundreds of houses in Penjaringan subdistrict, North Jakarta.

Subdistrict head Budi Santoso said his staff had prepared two inflatable boats for possible evacuation, and established a coordinating center with a communal kitchen in the subdistrict offices.

"We estimate that our area will continue to be flooded until Monday," he was quoted as saying by the Tempointeraktif news portal.

Jakarta officials warned last week that high tides in December threatened to flood coastal areas in the city, following an alert from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

The head of the Jakarta Crisis Center, Heru Joko Santoso, said officials were warning that Penjaringan and Pluit subdistricts in North Jakarta would be threatened by high tides between Dec. 8 and 12, and Dec. 20 and 25. -- JP

RI seafarers to get new biometric IDs

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian seamen have hailed the government's ratification of an International Labor Organization convention allowing them shore leave, transit and transfer in transit privileges at destination seaports.

The chairman of Indonesian Seafarers Association (KPI), Hanafi Rustandi, said that by ratifying the 2003 Convention 185 on Seafarers Identity Documents (SIDs), the government would need to issue new biometric SIDs for more than 35,000 Indonesian seafarers working on vessels flying both Indonesian and foreign flags.

The convention requires all ILO member countries to recognize the seafarers' SIDs and let them enter their territories for short shore leaves without visas.

"Certain countries, particularly the United States and Britain, will have no reason to reject our seafarers from stopping over or entering their territories," Hanafi told The Jakarta Post when asked to comment Friday on the ratification.

He said Indonesia moved quickly to ratify the ILO convention, which took effect on Feb. 9, 2005, because the U.S. and Britain had rejected Indonesian seamen entry following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington D.C.

"So far, Indonesia is still on the list of 25 countries considered prone to terrorism, which has affected our seamen," he said.

The House of Representatives endorsed the bill on the convention's ratification in a plenary meeting Friday to protect Indonesian seafarers overseas.

Chairwoman of the House's Commission IX for labor and health issues said the ratification not only showed Indonesia's commitment to implementing international labor standards, but also encouraged job seekers to work with shipping companies to reduce unemployment and improve the country's income through remittances from seafarers.

Related to the convention, the ILO approved in March 2004 a biometric verification system that provides a more rigorous response to the need for increased security in the maritime industry.

The new identity document for seafarers allows for the use of a biometric template to turn two fingerprints of a seafarer into an internationally standardized 2-D bar code on the SID.

Transportation Minister Jusman Safii Djamal praised the quick deliberation and ratification of the ILO convention to protect Indonesian workers working in international waters.

"Allowing seafarers to have shore leave at seaports means they can go to hospitals for medical treatment, mail letters to their families back home and report on any piracy and smuggling activities to the authorities," he told the plenary session.

"Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno and I will soon meet to coordinate the issuance of SIDs for all Indonesian seafarers."

RI to bring up marine resources` carbon-absorbing capacity at UNFCCC

Nusa Dua (ANTARA News) - Marine resources are believed to have a potential carbon-absorbing capacity many times the capacity of forests and therefore the Indonesian delegation to the United Nations climate change conference here will draw the conference`s attention to the matter so that it can be taken up in discussions on efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

"The sea has a carbon-absorbing capacity many times the capacity of forests. With the amount of biomass phytoplankton on earth reaching only 0.05 percent compared to all plants on land, the sea has the same carbon-absorbing capacity as forests," Jana T Anggadiredja, chairman of the climate change conference`s Working Group on Technology Transfer, who is also a member of the Indonesian delegation, said here on Saturday.

Marine resources such as algae, coral reefs and mangrove trees need nutrition in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) to grow, he said.

Actually, the Indonesian delegation had already discussed the matter with at least 12 other countries taking part in the 12-day conference and would try to get it included in the agenda of the Conference of Parties (CoP), he said.

The countries to initiate the inclusion of the issue in the agenda of the CoP to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) included Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, China, India, Australia and New Zealand.

He said marine resource scientists were in the middle of preparing a methodology for calculating the capacity of marine resources to absorb carbon.

"In our rough scheme, global forests have a capacity of absorbing 5 billion tons of carbon and marine resources at least 6 billion tons of carbon per year. Meanwhile, fossil fuels emit up to 23 billion tons of carbon per year," he said.

Russian Submarine Order to be Reviewed

Thursday, 06 December, 2007 | 22:59 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Surabaya: Indonesian Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Sumardjono, has said he would review the order of Treoguci submarines from Russia.

The reason for this, he said, was that the Navy was doubtful whether it could maintain the ships.

His institution instead planned to change the order to small ships with the same combat power as that of large ships.

“They will be produced domestically and we will order as many as we can,” said Admiral Sumardjono yesterday (5/12).

In the future, he said, his institution will rely more on domestic equipment procurement, from Batam, Surabaya and Manokwari.

According to Admiral Sumardjono, up until 2009 the Navy has planned its equipment procurement for airplanes and warships.

The equipment will include two Sigma Class ships from Netherlands and two Landing Platform Doc (LPD) ships to be built at the PT PAL Indonesia docks, Surabaya.

The Navy is targeting that by 2009 it will be able to add two Cassa airplanes plus between 8 and 10 patrol ships, 40 meters in length.

“Some LPD ships used to be built in Korea, but now they are built in our country,” said Admiral Sumardjono yesterday.

This measure, he said, is an effort heading to independence and technology transfer.

The Navy also aspires to empower the domestic industry.

On a separate occasion, TNI Commander candidate Gen. Djoko Santoso said that now TNI's power was inadequate to maintain the nation's security.

The ideal number of soldiers and which follows other countries is 0.4 percent of population.

“For Indonesia, this is still far from ideal,” he said.

Now TNI has 387,870 personnel, comprising 298,517 Army personnel, 60,963 Navy personnel and 28,390 Air Force personnel, plus 68,667 civil officers.

According to Djoko, ideally the TNI should have 880,000 personnel.

ADI MAWARDI | EKO ARI

Floods engulf three villages in Pamekasan

Pamekasan, Madura (ANTARA News) - Floods hit and inundated three villages, namely Galadek Anyar, Karteker and Kolpajung, in Pamekasan regency, Madura, East Java, on Friday night (Dec 7).

In many places the flood waters are chest deep, and even reached the roof of many homes at Jalan Amin Jakfar.

The first time hitting the three villages, the floods came suddenly and unexpectedly after a river embankment caved in Galadek Anyar village, reaching and inundating nearby homes.

"At least 50 homes were flooded," said Fauziyah (38), a resident at Jalan Amin Jakfar, Galadek Anyar village.

Many residents were crying in panic when seeing their homes almost disappearing from their sight engulfed by raging flood waters.

Residents were trying hard to block the flood waters, by anything they could lay their hands on, including wooden planks, mud and clay, but to no avail.

According to Fauziyah, on Friday night many residents took shelter at the local village office, but many stayed near their flooded homes watching out for looters.

Tempe lake suffers from severe sedimentation

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

Lake Tempe in South Sulawesi was once called the "fish bowl of Indonesia". Today, as a result of chronic sedimentation caused by erosion and water plants, fishing is drying up.

The sediment piles on at a rate of five centimeters per year, causing the lake to shrink away in the dry season and overflow in the wet season.

Three regencies border the lake -- Wajo, Soppeng and Sidenreng Rappang. Wajo, in particular, is at risk from seasonal floods which threaten thousands of private and public buildings.

Once the lake was 30,000 hectares in area and 10,000 meters deep. Now, Tempe is never larger than 10,000 hectares and shrinks to 1,000 hectares with a maximum depth of two meters in the dry season.

The Wajo regency administration and several environmental organizations say the lake may remain only a memory in future years.

Nine rivers flow into the lake and sedimentation is attributed to upstream erosion. The condition is worsened by household waste and the rampant growth of water hyacinth, called eceng gondok.

Wajo environmental agency head Andi Tenri Lengka explained the Eceng gondok speeds up sedimentation because dead plants accumulate under water instead of rotting. They choke the lake during rainy season and are still there when it dries out.

While eceng gondok is sometimes suitable for handicrafts, the Tempe variety is not, Lengka said.

Tempe's receding shoreline bodes ill for fish including bungo, biawang and bete-bete. A handful of other species are hanging on.

In the 1960s, Lengka said, the lake produced some 50,000 of fish per year, which helped feed the country's prison population. Today only about 10,000 tons are caught annually.

"We could catch a lot of fish easily (even) during the dry season, several years ago. Now, it is not easy to find them," said Wahid, a fisherman.

Most local fishermen have had to start farming when the lake dries up, sowing corn and soya beans on the lake bottom.

Lengka said he welcomed solutions to the environmental disaster from whatever quarter.

Wajo administration mitigation efforts include excavation of Cenrenae River and attempts to channel rainy season overflows into smaller lakes and rivers in the Tempe drainage.

Lengka said the administration needed Rp 43 billion (US$4.70 million) to implement its programs and hoped the province and central government would help.

Govt told to shift focus to maritime sectors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Maritime experts have reminded the government of the pressing need to develop the country's long-neglected maritime sector.

The point was made at a discussion organized by the Indonesian Maritime Council and the Indonesian Press Council at an event commemorating the Juanda Declaration and Archipelago Day.

Council secretary Prof. Rizald Max Rompas said the under-appreciated sector could contribute as much as US$150 billion to Indonesia's income annually if developed properly.

Recalling the "Juanda spirit", he said Indonesia had "forgotten one of the richest resources that makes us stand out from the rest of the world.

"The sea makes up 75.3 percent of our country."

At present, he said, "Only one point of our (national) long-term development plan involves the maritime sector."

The Juanda Declaration, named after former Prime Minister Djuanda Kartawidjaja, was issued in 1957 on Dec. 13, which is each year celebrated as "Archipelago Day".

Indonesia was declared an "archipelagic state", with the ocean forming an inseparable part of the nation, which annuls the principle of a three-mile territorial sea.

The declaration was later incorporated into a key 1960 law significantly expanding Indonesian territory.

Concepts introduced in the declaration were reaffirmed by the third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.

According to Bonar Simangunsong, council advisor, the National Maritime Convention held in Makassar, South Sulawesi, in 1996, also played a role in the development of Indonesia's maritime self-image.

"We saw Indonesia as no longer a country made of islands, but as a large area of water through which islands were scattered," Bonar said, referring to the event.

He also called for a shift in focus in national development strategy -- from land to sea.

However, in addition to the vast marine potential, Rompas pointed to certain risks.

He said the number of patrol ships assigned to monitor the safety of Indonesian seas was not sufficient to cover the country's vast marine territory.

"Every year we suffer a great loss from illegal fishing. The sea is also a favorite entry point for drugs and is used frequently by human traffickers," he said.

"We need to improve our maritime security."

Prof. Kanjeng Pangeran Tarnama Sinambela, a businessman turned educator, said education played an important role in the development of the maritime sector, which included fishing, tourism and trading.

"So I've established the Maritime Department at Mpu Tantular University to produce qualified human resources for the job," he explained. (lva)

Indonesia`s CP Prima to spend US$242 mln on shrimp production

Jakarta (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - The world's largest shrimp producer PT Central Proteinaprima (CP Prima) (JSX:CPRO) will spend up to US$242 million to boost the shrimp production of its two subsidiaries in Tulang Bawang, Lampung.

CP Prima's chief financial officer Gunawan Taslim said Tuesday that the company would set out on a program to revitalize PT Wachyubni Mandira and PT Aruna Wijaya Sakti, (formerly called PT Dipasena Citra Dharmaja.) CP Prima acquired Dipasena in May after the government announced that the aquaculture company could not pay its debt to the state.

High tides could flood Jakarta: Officials

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta officials on Tuesday warned that high tides in December threatened to flood coastal areas in the city, following an alert sent by the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

The head of the city's crisis center, Heru Joko Santoso, said officials were warning that Penjaringan and Pluit subdistricts in North Jakarta would be threatened by high tides between Dec. 8 and 12, and Dec. 20 and 25.

"The tides could be worse than the last incident," he said.

Last Monday, battered sea barriers in the two North Jakarta districts were breached by an unusually high tide.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Prijanto said all the administration could do was provide an early warning "to alert residents about the high tide, and install a communal kitchen and health tent".

Heru said expected high rainfall levels in December would exacerbate the high tides, and floodwater could reach as far as the city-owned Laguna Pluit low-cost apartments and the office of the Pluit subdistrict administration.

He said the area around the Riverside apartments in Kapuk Muara subdistrict could also be affected.

Heru said tents would be set up around the Penjaringan subdistrict administration office and near Muara Karang bridge, to accommodate those forced from their homes.

He said the crisis center had warned Penjaringan residents about the possibility of flooding.

Meanwhile, heavy rain on Monday evening and Tuesday morning inundated hundreds of houses in Cawang subdistrict, East Jakarta, with floodwater reaching chest-level in some areas.

Another 1,500 houses in the Pondok Arum housing complex in Tangerang, Banten, were under 1.5 to 2 meters of water.

Flooding also affected Dr. Subki Abdulkadir Islamic Hospital in Bekasi, forcing it to close.

Heru said other parts of Jakarta, including Cawang, Kramat Jati and Jatinegara in East Jakarta, Cakung in North Jakarta and Pancoran in South Jakarta, were at risk of flooding because of heavy rain.

Governor Fauzi Bowo has met with the governor of neighboring Banten, Ratu Atut Chosiyah, to try and put together a plan on revitalizing water catchment areas along the border between the two provinces.

Study finds marine conservation cuts poverty

Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Well-managed marine conservation can significantly help reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life for local communities, according to a new study.

The study, Nature's Investment Bank, which was released by The Nature Conservancy in Manado, North Sulawesi, on Thursday, was based on more than 1,100 interviews within poor communities in four countries, including Indonesia, from November 2006 to May this year.

In Indonesia, the study was conducted in North Sulawesi's Bunaken National Park, a popular diving destination in the province.

"This important study demonstrates that conservation and the well-being of humans are indelibly linked," said Stephanie Meeks, acting president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy.

"It's clear from this study that taking steps to protect vital natural systems, such as through the establishment of marine protected areas, provides clear benefits to people as well as wildlife."

Governments around the world are wrestling with questions about whether investment in conservation benefits the lives of the extremely poor.

This new study suggests that such investments do bring about measurable economic and quality of life benefits.

In the study, it was found that restoration of local resources, be they fisheries or coral reefs, increased fish catches and economic opportunities, improved community health as well as directly enhanced the lives of local residents.

Craig Leisher, who co-authored the study along with Dutch economist Dr. Peter van Beukering and Brazilian/Australian social scientist Dr. Lea M. Scherl, said when protected marine areas are developed with government support and scientific data, and are managed primarily by local communities that take pride in the management of their natural resources, significant improvements in quality of life can be seen.

"Building networks of resilient marine protected areas will help maintain the food and income necessary to support coastal communities as well as curb the use of destructive fishing techniques," he said.

Poverty has risen to the forefront of global issues, with nearly 3 billion people around the world living on the equivalent of US$2 a day or less, forcing millions to make decisions that damage their environment in order to feed themselves and their families.

When poverty increases, fish stocks are depleted. Fishermen are often driven to use destructive methods to catch what little is left, damaging the reefs and fish habitats that produce the food local communities depend upon for survival.

With every 5 percent loss of coral reefs, 250,000 to 500,000 tons of fish are lost as well, threatening food security for millions.

According to the study, tour operators in Bunaken National Park noted that tourists come for world-class diving and their presence directly benefits the local economy and tourism sector.

Marine conservation also directly benefits local farmers and fishermen because hotels and restaurants purchase much of their food from them.

In Bunaken National Park, the study found that marine conservation has benefited local communities, such as from the creation of more than 1,000 new jobs open to the local community, and by allowing those working in tourism to earn twice as much as fishermen. Moreover, 20 percent of park entrance fees are used for local community projects.

The study also found out that fishermen in Bunaken's marine protected area spent some 50 percent less time per year fishing than fishermen in areas without a marine protected area, while their income was roughly equal. This finding suggests in protected areas fishermen have more time to invest in other activities, such as the tourism industry.

The study, which was co-funded by the Nature Conservancy, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Australian government, WWF-Indonesia and was completed in collaboration with local NGOs and universities in each of the four study sites, also found similar results in other areas researched.

Japan gives RI three boats to patrol Malacca Strait

The Jakarta Post,

Jakarta The Japanese government on Friday presented three patrol boats for use in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes -- the Malacca Strait -- to the Indonesian Water Police.

Japanese Ambassador Shin Ebihara said before signing the handing-over agreement at Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta, the patrol boats were meant especially to help Indonesia handle piracy, maritime terrorism and weapon smuggling in the strait.

He said 20 percent of the tens of thousands vessels passing through the Malacca Strait annually belonged to Japan. He expressed hope the the three boats could benefit both countries.

"I hope Indonesia can use the boats effectively to secure the Malacca Strait, so we can continue strengthening and developing our relationship," said Ebihara.

National Police chief Gen. Sutanto, who signed the agreement with Ebihara, said the new boats had a number of advantages over the Water Police's older vessels.

He said the boats, which could travel at speeds up to 32 knots, were made of high-quality steel and equipped with state-of-the-art communication and navigation technologies.

"We can monitor chased boats with these vessels," said Sutanto.

Sumidagawa Shipyard Co. Ltd., a Japan-based manufacturer of patrol boats, ferries and medium-class warships, completed the construction of the three boats in seven months.

Each of the three boats is 27 meters in length and can carry up to 12 personnel. They are named "Hayabusa", "Anis Madu" and "Taka".

"We will place these three boats in Tanjung Batu, Riau and Belawan, Medan (North Sumatra), in accordance to the agreement with the Japanese government," said Sutanto.

Sutanto said Japan's grant of the boats was a follow-up to its gift of 10 war boats in 1962.

The old vessels, he said, were still in use today.

Sutanto said the new patrol boats were needed to oversee Indonesia's territorial waters around the Malacca Strait, which are susceptible to crimes such as piracy, marine terrorism, natural resource plundering, illegal fishing, and weapons and human smuggling.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported pirate attacks in the strait dropped from 79 in 2005 to 50 in 2006. In 2004, the region accounted for 40 percent of piracy worldwide.

The IMB reported in October 2007 that Indonesia continued to be the world's most pirate-infested region, with 37 attacks since January 2007, although this number was an improvement over the same nine-month period a year earlier. The IMB said of the navies in the countries around the strait, Indonesia's was least equipped to combat piracy.

Pirate attacks, however, have not stopped the 50,000 ships that transit the narrow passage of the Malacca Strait annually. The sea-borne cargo that goes through the strait accounts for some 40 percent of the world's trade. The strait is the most important route for oil from the Middle East to East Asia. (wda)


(*) Pictue Above: JAPANESE GIFT: National Police chief Sutanto (third right) and Japanese Ambassador Shin Ebihara (second left) inspect one of three police patrol boats given to Indonesia by the Japanese government after a ceremony at Tanjung Priok sea port in North Jakarta on Friday. The boats will be used to patrol the Malacca Strait. JP/J. Adiguna