Inaugurating Makassar New Port Worth IDR 5.4 Trillion, Jokowi's Efforts To Press Logistics Fees

The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi). (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has inaugurated a new port in the Eastern Indonesia region, Makassar New Port (MNP), today. This National Strategic Project (PSN) is the government's effort to reduce logistics costs in the country.

Regarding logistics costs, President Jokowi said that the current competition between countries is really very strict. The competition is in the efficiency market in the logistics sector.

Furthermore, Jokowi said that where countries have good efficiency, the country will win matches and competition.

Jokowi said 10 years ago the national logistics costs were at 24 percent, while other countries were at 9 to 12 percent.

According to Jokowi, the high national logistics costs are due to the integrability between ports and industrial estates, and the unintegrated ports and factories located far from ports.

"Now, our logistics costs have fallen by approximately 14 percent. It has fallen a lot, but it is still a little higher than other countries and this is our common homework," said President Jokowi in his remarks quoted from YouTube Pelindo, Thursday, February 22.

Furthermore, Jokowi said Makassar New Port is the second largest port after Tanjung Priuk Port with a depth of 16 meters.

"Also including the deepest port that is very good for leaning large ships to transport containers," he said.

Jokowi also said that this new port has a capacity of up to 2.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) containers. This number is larger than the old port in Makassar, which has a capacity of only 70.000 TEUs per year.

Makassar New Port, if the old capacity is only 750 TEUs per year, now 2.5 million TEUs per year. Very high jumps," he said.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta revealed that this new port cost an investment of IDR 5.4 trillion. Therefore, Jokowi hopes that this port can become a hub or liaison in Eastern Indonesia.

Investasi yang ditanam di sini Rp5,4 triliun, itu uang semua. Gede sekali Rp5,4 triliun. Kita lihat nanti bagaimana progres perkembangan port ini. Ini akan menjadi port besar di Indonesia Timur dan diharapkan bisa menempuhkan biaya logistik yang ada di Tanah Air kita, jelasnya.

For your information, the inaugurated MNP Phase 1A, 1B and 1C piers have a total length of 1,280 meters and built PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Persero) on an area of 52 hectares to support economic growth in eastern Indonesia.

The presence of a new port in Makassar will be able to accommodate a total of 2.5 million TEU containers for the 1A, B, and C stage piers as fresh air for shipping lines or shipping companies.

Because with the depth it has, namely 16 meters of LWS (Low Water Springs), MNP piers can be driven by ships with large weight or post panamax which are usually used for direct calls or direct shipping abroad.

MNP has also been equipped with Integrated Planning and Control Room, an innovative step to monitor and control ship services, terminals, containers, and logistics centrally. This transformation aims to improve service efficiency and support national logistics competitiveness.

Where the Integrated Planning and Control Room became the evolution of the previous Planning and Control Room (PnC) which was successfully implemented in Semarang. This difference lies in its surveillance coverage which is not only limited in Makassar, but also includes other areas such as Kendari, Balikpapan, to Maluku and Papua.

Since the stage 1A pier was inaugurated in operation around early November 2018, the presence of MNP has been able to unravel the waiting time or waiting time of the ship at the port for loading and unloading goods that have long been operating in the Makassar area, namely the Makassar Container Terminal (TPM) or what is now known as MNP.

With services 24 per 7 or 24 hours for 7 days, the presence of MNP which will later be integrated with a large-scale industrial area as well as railroads and toll roads connecting cities in Sulawesi is expected to be able to boost Indonesia's economic growth widely.