Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has set itself the target of eradicating poverty among fishermen living around 816 fishery ports (PPI) in the country.

"There are 816 PPIs in poor fishermen`s villages which are the target of the program," Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Minister Fadel Muhammad said here on Tuesday.

Based on data on poor fishermen in coastal areas and PPI collected from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the implementation of the program is divided into four stages, the minister said.

In the first and second stages, the target is aimed improving the welfare of fishermen in 100 PPIs in 2011 and 400 PPIs in 2012. A total of Rp127.82 billion will be allocated for them in 2011 and Rp1.71 trillion in 2012.

In the meantime, in the third and fourth stages, the programs would launched in 200 PPIs in 2013 and 116 PPIs in 2014.

The minister said that his ministry would try to do its best to carry out the program in four stages which were viewed to be able to improve the welfare of fishermen.

He said that the four strategies must be carried out to eradicate the poverty of about 7.8 million people living the coastal areas.
(Uu.A014/HAJM)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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