... industrial zone which is integrated with a port is potential to be developed as a logistic center. It will increase efficiency...Gresik, East Java (ANTARA News) - Chief economic minister Darmin Nasution has blamed lack of a good logistics system as the cause of rising prices of agricultural products in the country so far including the price of beef.
"It is strange why our products are not competitive. The price of rice in Malaysia is cheaper. Why are the prices of beef in Malaysia and Singapore only between Rp50,000 and Rp60,000 while here they are higher?," he said in Gresik, East Java, on Sunday.
He said the price of meat in Indonesia has been high before it skyrocketed recently to cause traders to stop selling the commodity.
"Before it rose the price has already been high. It means there is something wrong. Why is it high here. Actually what we are lacking is a good logistic system," he said.
Darmin Nasution was in Gresik to visit the Integrated Industrial and Port Estate (JIIPE) project along with the chief of the Investment Coordinating Board, Franky Sibarani, and religious affairs minister Lukman Hakin Saifuddin.
Darmin said the development of an integrated industrial zone could improve the logistic system.
Certainly, all parties must contribute to the improvement of the system, he added.
"So the system must assure that products that come first must be released first to prevent bad rice because the rice that comes later is released first to make the one coming first to become bad," he said.
Meanwhile, Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chief Franky Sibarani said the government is now focusing on improving the national logistic system.
He said the development of an integrated industrial zone with basic infrastructure such as port, power plant, toll road and railway line would be one of the priorities to improve competitiveness.
"An industrial zone which is integrated with a port is potential to be developed as a logistic center. It will increase efficiency," he said.
The JIIPE is a private-public cooperation project since 2012 namely between PT AKR Corporindo Tbk and PT Pelindo III.
The 2,933 hectare area is completed with a seaport covering 406 hectares of area and a 766 hectare residential area. The zone will also be completed with a power plant and an LNG terminal.
Editor: Ade P Marboen
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