Jakarta,
April 30, 2017 (Antara) - A Roll on-Roll off (Ro-Ro) ferry service to be
officially launch by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and President
Rodrigo Duterte in Davao, the southern Philippines, on April 30, is to
improve connectivity between the two neighboring countries.
The Ro-Ro shipping service connecting Davao and General Santos in the
Philippines with Bitung in Indonesia's North Sulawesi Province, will
provide faster and cheaper transportation services for people and goods.
Better connectivity between Indonesia and the Philippines is part of
the development agenda of boosting connectivity in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), that groups Indonesia, the Philippines,
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Laos and Myanmar.
Prior
to the inauguration of the new shipping service, Indonesia's
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi signed a joint declaration
with his Filipino counterpart Arthur P. Tugade on boosting sea
connectivity.
The
signing of the declaration was witnessed by President Jokowi and
President Duterte during the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Summit in Manila, the
Philippines on April 28.
In fact, the route is part of the
Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-EAGA vision for 2025, with the
goal to develop the sub-region in seven to 10 years.
Minister Sumadi stated that the implementation of the sea connectivity
project is important to Indonesia, as it will help to establish new sea
and trade routes.
"The connectivity will offer a huge opportunity for both countries in
terms of boosting economy, reducing travel time, as well as offering
higher potential to increase trade," Minister Sumadi said.
It
will also support the president's national priority program to
transform the Bitung Harbor into an international hub, he noted.
The establishment of the new RoRo shipping route also has the potential
to boost the local economy and increase tourism and investment in the
area, he pointed out.
It is also forecast that the route will be competitive, as it will lead
to a shorter travel time due to its close geographical proximity,
thereby helping to lower the logistics and transportation costs.
"It
only takes one to two days to travel on the Bitung-Davao route, which
is significantly shorter as compared to the
Bitung-Surabaya/Jakarta-Manila-Davao route that takes at least one to
two weeks. Surely, the costs of transportation and logistics will go
down as well," he remarked.
Philippine
Ambassador to Indonesia Maria Lumen B. Isleta had earlier said new
economic and trade opportunities are in sight with the opening of the
Davao-General Santos-Bitung (D-G-B) shipping service, which is one of
the target priorities for the Philippines Chairmanship of the ASEAN in
2017.
Ambassador
Isleta and members of the Philippines and Indonesia Inter-Agency Task
Force for the Operationalization of the D-G-B Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo)
Route gathered in Jakarta on Jan 17, 2017, to discuss preparations for
the maiden voyage of the RoRo, which will connect Davao and General
Santos City to Bitung in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, the Philippine
embassy said in a statement in January.
The D-G-B RoRo Route under the ASEAN RoRo Initiative aims to enhance
maritime connectivity in ASEAN and maximize the use of regional sea
lanes.
The opening
of the route is a more cost and time-efficient alternative to the usual
Manila-Jakarta-Bitung route, which would take about three to five weeks
of shipping time.
In contrast, direct shipping through the D-G-B route will take only one
day and a half of sailing (excluding port stay).
The
route is also expected to spur trade between Mindanao and the Sulawesi
provinces in Indonesia. It is also expected to provide greater access
for local businessmen to engage in international trade, as well as
stimulate other areas of development such as joint tourism promotion,
establishment of direct linkages, and increase in investment inflows,
among others.
Meanwhile,
Mindanao Development Authority Assistant Secretary Romeo Montenegro
said the Ro-Ro route will strengthen trade among the four countries
comprising the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA), CNN Philippines reported
on April 28.
"Expect
this to be already setting the tone for a much increased trade movement
and movement of commodities not only between Mindanao and the North
Sulawesi part of Indonesia but the larger economic spectrum, where we
also look at this route as a possible transshipment of products that are
coming from Luzon, or other countries that are penetrating North
Sulawesi, Indonesia," Montenegro said in a press briefing at the 30th
ASEAN summit on April 29.
Among the goods identified by the private sector in Mindanao that will
be shipped to Indonesia are animal feeds, fertilizer, construction
materials, ice cream products, poultry (halal), fresh fruits, and
synthetics. Mindanao Development Authority said initial list of import
goods include matured coconut, copra, corn, feed ingredients, lumber,
cement, high value crops, vegetables, meat, peanuts, aqua products,
charcoal, soya, coffee beans, and sugar.
M/V
Super Shuttle RoRo 12, operated by the Asian Marine Transport
Corporation, will provide the weekly shipping service, according to the
CNN Philippines.
With
a capacity of 500 twenty foot equivalent units, the vessel will carry
imported mature coconut, copra, and other high value crops, as well as
exported animal feeds, fertilizer, and halal poultry.
Trade
Assistant Secretary Arturo Boncato said the usual Manila to Jakarta to
Bitung route takes three to five weeks of shipping time. The direct
shipping through the Davao-GenSan-Bitung route takes a day and a half.
The most important that he assures the ferry service is safe from
pirates because the Coast Guard and Philippine Navy will be present to
escort the vessel throughout the trip amid threats from bandits and
pirates in the area.
Boncato said when initiating a project, security issue is a key part of
the whole process so an interagency task force was created to look at
all the aspects to make the project a success, JournalOnline
(www.journal.com.ph) reported.
"We are ready in all those aspects not only when it comes to security
but also when it comes to sustainability of commodities being shipped,"
Boncato told the media. ***1***
(f001/H-YH)
30-04-2017
(f001/H-YH)
30-04-2017
No comments:
Post a Comment