TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is currently considering to develop the Tenau Port in East Nusa Tenggara as an international port and the hub in the eastern part of Indonesia.

"Maybe as a hub in the eastern part, if the studies are complete it will be different," Jokowi said during a filed inspection of the Tenau Container Terminal, as quoted from an official statement on Wednesday, 21 August, 2019.

Quoting a press release from the Transportation Minsitry, the Tenau Port in Kupang was built on 1964 with a total dock length of 23 meters. The port's activities are managed by Pelindo III in cooperation with the Harbormaster Office and Port Authority Class III in Kupang.

The President also mentioned about the operation of cattle ships used to be carrying cattle from East Nusa Tenggara to Jakarta. Jokowi added that out 6 (six) cattle ship routes, 5 of them were originated from East Nusa Tenggara.

The President added that around 70,000 cows are transported from East Nusa Tenggara to Java, especially to Jakarta and its surrounding regions. "The ship was previously subsidized. It was IDR 700,000, now all that is left is IDR 200,000. That is what we wanted," Jokowi said.

In relation to the development of the port, Jokowi said that the Tenau Port capacity can be improved.

With a 240,000 TEUs total capacity of container dock, the loading and unloading activities in recorded 2018 had only reached 110,000 TEUs annually.

The government will also attempt that in the future, Tenau Port will also be crowded with ships carrying goods to other regions, not only cattle. Such effort is related to the recent attempt to increase salt production in East Nusa Tenggara, which is expected to be transported to other regions.

"Salt will begin production next year, the [cargo] content to Java will be salt. Maybe later the cattle can be butchered [in East Nusa Tenggara], so what will be delivered are frozen met. In the future, it is expected to be like that," Jokowi concluded.

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