Raja Ampat Regency Government Cooperates With Aruna And Astra To Develop Fisheries Potential

Photo: Doc. Astra

JAKARTA - The large fishery potential in eastern Indonesia, especially the Papua region, is expected to grow. This effort is being carried out by the Sorong City Government as well as the Raja Ampat Regency Government together with Aruna Indonesia and PT Astra International, making Papua's fisheries potential more ogled by the world.

One form of realizing Papua's fishery potential is by releasing containers of fishery products at Mako Lantamal XIV Sorong, West Papua, Monday 6 June. This is to meet the demands of the international market.

Sorong Mayor Lambertus Jitmau said that the presence of Aruna Indonesia and Astra was very helpful for the community, especially fishermen. Most importantly, there is training for fishermen to further develop fishery potential

The hope is that in the future, he said, this fishery potential can be of more benefit to the people and the country.

"The presence of Aruna and Astra, I beg you to be able to manage this marine potential according to standards, and in the future, it will be exported abroad, and this can be beneficial for the country and society," said Lambertus in his speech.

Meanwhile, Raja Ampat Regent Abdul Faris Umlati who was represented by the Assistant for General Administration of the Raja Ampat District Secretariat, Ferdinand Rumsowek, said the release of this fishing container was a hope that was now realized.

Of course, according to him, this fact cannot be separated from the assistance from Aruna and the Astra Prosperous Village (DSA) program. Moreover, the area of Raja Ampat Regency reaches 46.000 square km and 87 percent of its area is the sea.

So that many people in the Raja Ampat region who live on the coast of islands and remote islands, depend on marine and fishery natural resources.

"This incident for us is no longer a dream in broad daylight, but a dream come true as a maritime district that determines the priority of donations according to regional conditions and characteristics," said Ferdinand representing the regent of Raja Ampat.

The released containers of fishery products are then shipped to many major countries. Such as China, America, and North America. All of these results are catches of Aruna fishermen in the Astra Sejahtera Village area, Raja Ampat, West Papua.

Co-Founder & Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Aruna Utari Octavianty said, the release of this 14-ton fishery production container proves that Indonesia is able to compete in the global market. Of course the most proud, the fishery is the catch of native Papuan fishermen.

"Aruna will continue to foster coastal communities, to be able to compete at the global level in order to improve their standard of living," said Utari.

It should be noted that Aruna is an Indonesian fishery supply chain aggregator company that aims to cut the supply chain of fishery products from small fishermen to the world market through technology.

"About more than 14 tons of fishery products such as crabs, crabs, lobsters, squid and fish are ready to be shipped to meet global market demand," said Utari.

CSR Manager of PT Astra International, Bima Krida Pamungkas revealed that collaboration with many parties in Papua has added to the success of the DSA program. In total, there are four villages in the Raja Ampat area that are members of DSA, the majority of which are fishermen.

It is hoped that in the future, through the collaboration built with Aruna Indonesia with the city/district government in Papua, this will be more successful in producing productive coastal communities. Especially the more local potential develops.

"Of course, we share roles in developing the Astra Raja Ampat Prosperous Village. I hope that in the future the Astra Raja Ampat Prosperous Village can progress and develop," said Bima.

So far, the collaboration built by Aruna with Astra and the local government has made approximately 150 local fishermen prosperous, 500 coastal communities affected by increasing people's income up to 4 times.