KSP appreciates the Ministry of Transportation's Sea Toll Program at the Port of Sorong

Deputy V of the Presidential Chief of Staff, Laus Deo Calvin Rumayom, expressed his appreciation for the performance of the Sea Highway program at the Port of Sorong which has been running effectively.

"We give our appreciation and gratitude to the Sorong KSOP, which manages a fairly large area but has been quite productive so far and I am surprised because I rarely meet the head of the KSOP, a woman who can become a leader who can inspire the younger generation," said Laus in a release in Jakarta. , Saturday.

Furthermore, Laus explained several issues which are subject to evaluation. Namely regarding the optimization of the return cargo of the Sea Highway.

According to him, one of the drivers of reverse cargo is to increase the production of local commodities which are superior and have high selling power to be shipped out of the region.

"The Port of Sorong has become an extraordinary hub for Papua and eastern Indonesia, but of course there are several issues that we see still need to be addressed, namely how the Governor and regional heads, namely the Regent and Mayor, in their regional development planning must utilize or be based on port utilization," he said.

He explained that technically the Sea Highway program has been successful. However, return loading is often one of the obstacles that needs more handling.

"What we are evaluating is that the return load is related to commodities. We need to ensure this commodity becomes the main role of regional heads, especially related agencies in preparing production from the agricultural, fisheries, home industries as well as other industries, "he said.

He emphasized that this needs to be done continuously to take advantage of the Sea Highway, which is one of the subsidy policies set by the President to support underdeveloped regions and regions where the prices of goods are high due to the distance traveled.

"So that we coordinate with KSOP, PT Pelindo and PT Pelni. We need to prepare a technical coordination meeting which is bottom up, not from the lower ministries but from the bottom to the ministries. So that all the information we mapped in this field becomes a reference for Ministries and Institutions to be more synergized, "he concluded.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Sorong Class I Port Authority and Port Authority Office, Jece Julita Piris, said that currently his party together with the local government (Pemda) as well as related agencies and stakeholders are aggressively optimizing the return cargo of the Sea Toll.

"The socialization is more intense because it is a new route and the synergy of all agencies and projections of new routes around West Papua," said Jece.

In addition, Jece revealed that currently port human resource development is also being carried out, starting from capacity building and so on. Previously, the Ministry of Transportation through the Directorate General of Sea Transportation continued to encourage local governments (pemda) and the community to optimize the return cargo of the Sea Toll Road.

One of them is in Sorong, Papua. Among the efforts made were to form a Sea Toll Optimization Group at the Port of Sorong which consists of cross-sectoral and stakeholder groups. Their initial task was to socialize the use of the SITOLAUT (Sea Highway Information System) application for local communities and entrepreneurs.

SOURCE: https://www.antaranews.com/berita/2066418/ksp-apreciation-program-tol-laut-kemenhub-di-pelabuhan-sorong