Indonesia is Not Yet a Maritime Country: Minister

Jakarta (Antara) - Maritime and Fisheries Minister Sharif Cicip Sutardjo said Indonesia is not yet a maritime country. Indonesia has not met the criteria of a maritime country, he said adding, inter-island connectivity is not yet functioning , infrastructure is not yet ready, even the law on maritime is expected to be ready only in September, Sharif said here on Monday. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago with sea territory reaching 5.8 million square meters including 3.1 million kilometers of territorial waters and 2.7 million square meters of exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and consisting of 17,508 islands and coat lines of 104,000 kilometers. Sharif said Indonesia has not yet comprehensively thought about facilities and infrastructure to back up a maritime country. He said a maritime country is one which relies fully on sea resources to develop its economy , trade and other activities. "In principle a maritime country is is one that could fully exploit and utilize its sea resources and potentials while observing conservation of the sea and the sea environment," he said. He cited China, Thailand , Vietnam, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands as examples of maritime countries. "They have no wide seas but they could fully utilize their sea resources to be the largest contributor to their GDP," he said. (*)