Benoa Port will be similar to marina port in Singapore
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA) - Benoa Harbor in Denpasar, Bali, emerged as a hub for global cruise ship services in line with the area's development to become the Bali Maritime Tourism Center (BMTH), Deputy State-Owned Enterprises Minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo stated.

“This cruise ship terminal becomes a transit point and a hub for international cruise ships. Those ships can also attract passengers boarding from Bali," he noted at Benoa Harbor, Denpasar, on Friday.

Wirjoatmodjo remarked that the government fully supported the development of the tourism center, including supporting cruise ship facilities both on land and at sea.

In the next two to three years, Benoa Harbor will not only become an industrial port, marina, and yacht port but also a hub for large cruise ships, he affirmed.

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"Benoa Port will be similar to marina port in Singapore," he stated.

Wirjoatmodjo remarked that the development of the BMTH as carried out with the construction of two reclamation areas, namely for a tourism center and an industrial center, including for the supply of green fuel and electricity generation.

Meanwhile, President Director of state-run port operator PT Pelindo, Arif Suhartono, stated that Benoa Port would also become a hub for one of the international cruise ship operators.

However, he did not outline details of the cruise ship operators who have chosen Bali as their cruise ship service center.

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"Bali will be the hub for one of the cruise operators, and we hope their stopover time in Benoa will be longer," Suhartono remarked.

He explained that earlier, the average stopover time for cruise ships in Benoa, Bali, reached 10-12 hours and will increase to two days.

"We hope they can stay longer in Bali and provide added value to Bali," he remarked.

Pelindo noted the total costs disbursed for the BMTH project amounted to Rp1.2 trillion, which came from the cash state capital injections for infrastructure at sea and infrastructure work on land amounting to Rp2.2 trillion from Pelindo.

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Translator: Dewa Ketut S W, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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