Indonesia Lacks Good Logistics System: Darmin
23 August 2015 15:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Gresik - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution said that Indonesia lacks good logistics system so that the prices of agricultural products, including meat, are expensive.
"We often feel strange, why our agricultural products are less competitive. The price of rice in Malaysia is cheaper than ours. Why is the price of meat in Malaysia, Singapore are Rp50,000-Rp60,000, but it is expensive here?” Nasution said, in Gresik, East Java, on Sunday, August 23.
According to him, the price of meat in Indonesia is already high before it recently skyrocketed and caused a number of traders went to go on strike.
"Before the price hike the price was already high, this means that there is a problem. But why is it expensive? Actually, what we do not have is a good logistics system," he said.
In a working visit to the area of Java Integrated Port and Industrial Area (JIIPE) in Gresik, East Java, together with the Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Franky Sibarani, and the Minister of Religious Affairs, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, Darmin assessed the development of an integrated complex could one of the efforts to improve poor logistics system.
In addition to all interested parties participating in contributing to improve the poor logistics system, said Nasution.
"So the system first in, first out. Let there be no newly arriving rice being issued first, the older stock will be ruined," he said.
Sibarani, in the same occasion, said the government is focusing on improving the national logistics system.
According to him, the construction of integrated industrial zones with basic infrastructure such as ports, power plants, toll roads to railways is one of the best efforts to increase competitiveness.
“An industrial area that is integrated with a potential port, can be developed as a logistics center. That makes the cost of logistics more efficient," he said.
The JIIPE project is a public-private partnership since 2012, between PT AKR Coprorindo Tbk and PT Pelindo III.
An area of 2,933 hectares that include a 406-hectare deep sea port and residential area covering an area of 766 hectares. The area is planned to be equipped with a power plant and a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal.
ANTARA