Maritime State Status, Fisheries Indonesia Is Like A Sleepy Giant

Illustration of Indonesian fisheries. (Photo via ANTARA/Ismar Patrizki)

JAKARTA - As a Maritime State, 70 percent of its territory is the ocean, Indonesia certainly has abundant marine wealth. However, this potential has not been fully utilized.

According to the Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Teten Masduki, Indonesian fisheries is like a giant that is still asleep. He said the opportunity to develop the marine sector in Indonesia was still very wide.

This is because investors who are interested in the marine sector have only reached four percent.

"Marine scholars are required to take on more roles, especially opening up job opportunities for middle class in the marine and fisheries sector which can create wider job opportunities, resulting in technological innovations that create added value of products, and adaptive to changes," Teten said in a written statement, as reported by Antara, Saturday, September 24, 2022.

He added that marine scholars must be able to optimize fishery and marine resources as well as make a real contribution to the evolution of entrepreneurship in the country. According to him, Indonesia has extraordinary marine resources and has become a leading domestic figure.

"If Norway has salmon, we have many other commodities such as tuna, vaname shrimp, seaweed, and others. Therefore, it is important for scholars to develop cultivation research in the marine sector, so that we can indeed master our marine resources with this research," said Teten.

Indonesia can emulate countries such as Australia or South Korea because they have universities that play a role in the evolution of micro or informal enterprises into science technology innovation-based businesses.

The role of universities through programs such as real Work Lectures (KKN) is considered to be very helpful for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the implementation of modern technology, including digital onboarding. Starting from online registration and sales, product marketing, to how to use the QR code as payment.

It is even time for universities and the government to build a special platform to bring together similar business actors to share ideas, product innovations, and training to improve business scale. Such programs in a number of places have proven to be able to increase sales by up to 61.5 percent.

"So undergraduates must encourage the evolution of entrepreneurship, we must start developing products that can compete. Iskindo graduates must have the desire to prosper this country based on the marine sector," said Teten.