"Logistic cost in Indonesia reached 24 pct of the total GDP, equal to Rp1820 trillion, consisting of saving cost Rp546 trillion, transportation Rp1092 trillion, and administration Rp182 trillion," member of Kadin`s Economic Research and Development Study Agency (LP3EI) Ina Primiana said in Jakarta Tuesday.
Ina said logistic cost in Indonesia is very high compared to that in Malaysia which reached only 15 pct, the United States and Japan 10 pct.
"Besides the very high cost, logistic services in Indonesia are also bad like intervals in Indonesia for imported commodities requiring 5.5 days, and transportation is also very costly," Ina added.
This condition, Ina said, in addition to the still conventional logistic facilities like roads, ports, and and inter modal relations, and then the still lacking in connectivity between a location and another, as well as the dispatch of containers to the regions is much more costly compared to their dispatch to other countries.
"Indonesia is an archipelago, but most of its facilities are on land, and not supporting relations between the different islands or chain logistics," Ina said adding that the cost of unloading of cargo at the ports is also very high.
Ina said besides the very high cost of loading and unloading of carro at the ports roads from and to Tanjung Priok port is also alway badly congested which has never reduced, so that it is very difficult for cargo transportation companies to optimize their operations.
"The cost of terminals in the Tanjung Priok port, is now very high, and continued increasing from 200 500 pct, and also unofficial costs which must be paid to cargo handling," Ina said.
She also said that information and communication technology is also posing a problem to the monitoring of the flow of goods, in addition to logistic regulations which are not integrated, the host of documents which need to be prepared, ships which are not very good, and the low competence of human resources.
To boost competitiveness, she added, it is time for the improvement of infrastructures and connectivity like physical infrastructure, coordination between the different institutions, the people and the public in general.
"In addition to that repeated evaluations need to be done of matters as burden of logistics like the long lines at ports, the cost of leasing warehouses, the problems of obtaining licenses, and complicated business imports," she added.
Since Indonesia is an archipelagic country she added logistic development in the regions and ports also need to be improved in line with Indonesia`s characteristics.
(T. V003/H-NG/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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