Besides this, it will also put in order foreign investors who run businesses on the outlying islands. "We will summon foreign investors and will inquire about their business activities on the outlying islands. If necessary, we will move them to other islands if their businesses do not accord with the conditions of the concerned isles," Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Ferry Mursyidan Baldan stated on Tuesday.
The minister made the remarks while elaborating on his plan regarding the presence of foreign investors who operate business ventures on several Indonesian outlying islands.
Ferry said he will review the presence of the investors. In line with the plan, the minister said all outer islands will be certified.
"It is all clear. Irrespective of whether or not the islands are inhabited, they will be given certificates on behalf of the state. If there are business ventures on them, we will summon the operators to inquire what they are doing there," Ferry remarked.
He pointed out that if the matter concerns the borders of outlying islands, then one cannot operate a business venture on them at will. All countries in the world adopt this approach, he added.
"We can just move them to the other islands if the investors run a tourism business on it but if it concerns environment or culture tourism, the business can continue there as long as it provides benefits to the local people and does not merely carry out exploitation," the minister stated.
However, he stressed that the land of the outlying islands will continue to belong to the state.
He affirmed that the prosperity of the local people residing in border areas was one of the key points in making an island in the border areas that are the frontline of the state.
Therefore, the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry has set itself a target to complete the certification of 92 outlying islands in the country in 2015.
"I have to complete the certification target of all the outlying islands in 2015. We have checked it and found that we have the same data as that with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries on the number of outlying islands, which reaches 92," the minister noted.
Ferry said his ministry and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries had already reached an agreement on the definition of the outlying islands where the land had been measured and did not get submerged when the tidal water was on the rise.
"We will give certificates, which constitute a state document to them, so that they will have a firm standing at home and the international court. If there is a dispute, we will have the data," the minister asserted.
The Indonesian archipelago comprises 17,504 islands and 92 of them are located in the frontier areas in ten provinces that share their maritime borders with ten foreign countries. According to official records, 26 districts share their borders with neighboring countries.
Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu was earlier scheduled to visit some outlying islands such as the southernmost Indonesian island of Ndana Rote, which borders Australia.
"The defense minister flew out to the southernmost Indonesian island on board an Indonesian Army helicopter," stated Commander of the Wirasakti Military District Command 161 Brigadier General Ahmad Yuliarto.
Ndana, which is one of Indonesias outlying islands in the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province, was formerly managed by an Australian tourism business agent. However, the Australian citizen abandoned the business after the Indonesian Military (TNI) deployed its personnel there to prevent foreign parties from annexing the island.
The other Indonesian islands that border Australia and Timor-Leste are Mengudu Island in East Sumba district and Batek Island in Kupang district.
Yuliarto remarked that after visiting the Ndana Rote Island, Ryacudu inspected the border regions between Indonesia and Timor-Leste in Mota Ain, Belu district, to hold a dialog with former East Timor residents who chose to become Indonesian citizens following the UN-sponsored referendum of 1999.
Apart from the outlying islands, the government will also manage its border areas on land. The new government promised to take concrete steps to develop the border areas. Among the first steps towards the implementation of the program is budgeting.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) affirmed that so far, 27 ministries under the previous government had allocated the budget for the program to develop backward areas.
"Together, the budget swelled, but implementation was not effective. The infrastructure and services remained in doldrums," Jokowi said while visiting the border city of Atambua, NTT.
The president emphasized that the government will improve the conditions in border areas by adopting the "one-stop service integrated system."
"Services must be fast. We must not lag behind other countries," he stressed.
Management of the border areas, including the small isles, has not been well-organized and integrated. The 27 ministries with the budget allocated for frontier area development tend to each go their own way.
Backwardness and social imbalance between the two sides of the borders such as between Kalimantan and Sarawak of Malaysia are potential factors that encourage illegal logging and smuggling across the borders.
Reports have even surfaced about Indonesians disowning their citizenship and claiming to be Malaysians, so that they can live a better life.
Relations between the two communities across the borders have been good. They belong to the same race and use the same language. They are different only in terms of their prosperity.
According to a member of the East Kalimantan Regional Legislative Assembly (DPRD) Abdul Djalil Fatah, people in the frontier areas said they would give up their Indonesian citizenship and become Malaysians if the government failed to address their problems.
The provinces in Kalimantan sharing borders with Sarawak have submitted budget proposals to build roads in the border areas. The roads will be needed to facilitate economic development.
Roads would also be needed for security purposes and to curb cross-border smuggling. However, all plans are still in the pipeline.
There were even talks of a bigger plan to open palm oil plantations along the border areas to improve the economic conditions of the local people.
(T.A014/INE/KR-BSR/F001)
Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
