"Currently, the dwelling time in Belawan is 3.18 days, with a portion of Pelindo-I being less than a day. We are optimistic that the instruction of President Joko Widodothe (Jokowi) to shorten the dwelling time will be fulfilled," port management company Pelindo-I spokesman M Eriansyah remarked here on Wednesday.
President Jokowi, whose ambition is to make Indonesia a global maritime axis has, since the beginning of his administration, instructed that dwelling times be reduced, particularly in major seaports such as Tanjung Priok located in North Jakarta, Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, and Balawan in North Sumatra.
The Head of State has vowed to tackle the unending problems in the maritime and logistics sectors through reform and heavy investments in infrastructure with the goal to reduce logistics costs from the current 23.5 percent of GDP to 19.2 percent by 2019.
The government has intensified the carrying out of infrastructure development to reduce logistics and transportation costs, which are 2.5 times higher when compared to other countries, due to illegal levies and prolonged processes.
Eriansyah said various efforts have been made by the government to shorten the dwelling time, among other things by building a one-hectare buffer zone to accommodate container ships from zone-I which had the Letter of Approval for Expenditures (SPPB).
"Previously, containers which had been unloaded from the ships were piled in zone- I, although they had already pocketed SPPB. Now, containers will be moved to the buffer zone area so that they are no longer accumulating in zone-I," said Eriansyah.
Further, he noted that Pelindo-I has also reached an agreement with the ship through the Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Service Level Guarantee (SLG) to increase the speed of loading and unloading, as well as implementing a system of fines in case of delays.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
