Jokowi Discusses Sea Toll and High Logistics Price

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo held a closed meeting to discuss the acceleration of the sea toll program at the Presidential Office on Thursday, March 5, 2020. During the meeting, Jokowi recalled that the initial purpose of the sea toll program was to reduce price disparities between regions.

"But from the information I received, the cost of shipping logistics between regions is still expensive," Jokowi said.

Jokowi stated that the cost of shipping from Jakarta to Padang, Jakarta to Medan, Jakarta to Banjarmasin, and Jakarta to Makassar are more expensive compared to the cost of shipping from Jakarta to Singapore, Jakarta to Hong Kong, Jakarta to Bangkok, or Jakarta to Shanghai.

The President further said that the price disparities between regions must be reduced in accordance to the initial purpose of the sea toll program. He asked for this problem to be seen in detail and comprehensively. Jokowi specifically requested for this issue to be examined in detail and comprehensively.

"Is the problem at the port for example, matters with dwelling time or is it monopolistic practices in transportation and distribution of goods so that logistics costs are not efficient," Jokowi said.

Also, Jokowi claimed that he had received reports saying that logistics costs were hard to be reduced due to unequal load of goods transported from the western to the eastern part of the country. "This needs to be checked again," said Jokowi.

BISNIS.COM | GALUH KURNIA RAMADHANI (INTERN TRANSLATOR)