The Government Continues to Optimize the Sea Highway Program

The Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) continues to optimize the maritime highway program in terms of infrastructure, routes, fleets and cargo.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation, Adita Irawati, said that since it was launched for the first time by President Joko Widodo in 2015, the sea highway program is claimed to continue to increase and develop.

"Even though it is still in a pandemic atmosphere, the Ministry of Transportation continues to optimize and also accelerate the maritime highway program, one of which is by adding new routes," he said as quoted from the official Youtube account of the Ministry of Transportation @ kemenhub151, Monday (24/5/2021).

He said that the presence of the maritime highway program was aimed at making the gap in the price of goods in the eastern part of Indonesia able to continue to be reduced. This is also an important form of Presidential Instruction No. 9/2020 concerning the Acceleration of Welfare Development in Papua and West Papua Provinces.

"In 2021, the Ministry of Transportation will add 4 new routes so that up to now there are a total of 30 sea toll routes. This has developed tremendously compared to previous years," he said.

Furthermore, Adita explained that the additional route involved 106 ports, consisting of 9 port bases and 97 transit ports. The presence of this route has made the reach of the sea highway program even wider.

According to him, now more and more goods can be transported back from Eastern Indonesia to other regions. Whereas usually, this route carries more commodities from West Indonedia to the East.

"So now we have succeeded in transporting commodities from eastern Indonesia to other regions, one of which is the cargo from Morotai. The Morotai Regency Government is able to optimize the sea highway so that it can send or export their products outside the region," he added.

For information, in January 2021, the inaugural voyage of the maritime highway program from the southern region to northern Papua using the Nusantara 2 Logistics Ship has been successfully carried out.

This ship departs from Merauke and arrives at the port of Kokas, Fak-Fak Regency, West Papua by transporting essential staple goods.

source: https://ekonomi.bisnis.com/read/20210524/98/1397192/program-tol-laut-kini-sudah-punya-30-trayek