JAKARTA: The Indonesian Port Operators Association is challenging a Transportation Ministry plan to hand over government-controlled ports to state-owned operators in a bid to improve port management, worrying that such decision will promote a monopoly, the association’s top executive said in a statement on Friday (12/08). “It’s important to make sure we offer the same opportunities to operate the ports to both state-owned enterprises and private companies to avoid a monopoly that will affect the quality of port services in Indonesia,” the association’s chairman Aulia Febrial Fatwa said.
Aulia’s comment came after new Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said his ministry will offer hundreds of ports — currently managed by the ministry’s technical managing units (UPT) — to state operators, including Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) I, Pelindo II, Pelindo III and Pelindo IV. “Some ports are managed by the ministry and the others are managed by Pelindo,” Budi said. “We want to hand over all the ports to Pelindo so the ministry’s role as a regulator and Pelindo as an operator do not overlap,” Budi said.
Adolf R. Tambunan, director of ports and dredging at the ministry’s sea transportation directorate general, said there are 2,155 ports in Indonesia — 1,141 of which are managed by Pelindo I, II, III and IV. There are other reasons why the government wants to hand over port management to SOEs, including lack of investment and a desire to improve port management’s efficiency, Adolf said.
