Jakarta, Nov. 21, 2013 (ANTARA) -- The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, makes a state visit to Indonesia between Nov. 19-22 to step into the opportunities to develop and enhance the bilateral partnership between both countries. Coming along with the Prime Minister are the Minister of the Foreign Trade and Development Collaboration, Lillianne Ploumen; The Minister of Agriculture, Sharon Djiksma; and 15 representatives of the Dutch entrepreneurs. During the visit, the Prime Minister will attend a state meeting with the President SBY to discuss the development of the bilateral partnership between both countries in a number of sectors, as well as expanding and bolstering the partnership. Both countries reaffirm to develop and strengthen the future-oriented bilateral partnership based on the principle of equality, mutual respect, and beneficial for both ends. On the series of the visit's events, both countries have already signed the MoU on the Fisheries Cooperation. The Indonesian government was represented by the Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Sharif C. Sutardjo, while the on the Dutch end was represented by the Minister of Agriculture, Sharon Djiksma. The MoU signing witnessed by the both countries' presidents was held in the Merdeka Palace.

"Today (Nov. 21), the Dutch Minister of Agriculture is scheduled to make an official state to the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in the framework of discussing the Netherlands-Indonesia fishery cooperation follow-up in which the Indonesian government encourages the Dutch government to develop the sustainable fishery," conveyed Anang Noegroho, MMAF's Director of Center of Analysis for International and Institutional Cooperation in Jakarta. Anang explains that the cooperation is on the framework of the Working Group on Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (WGAFF). It aims to enhance the ease and availibility of access to the safe and qualified fishery products in the domestic market. The cooperation is planned to be run in three work packages; the reduction of capture fisheries post-harvest losses through the handling practices; enhancing the aquaculture product based on the sustainability and the Good Aquaculture Practices (GAP); and improving the fishery product distribution and marketing. "The cooperation is also to enhance the fishery product value added for the domestic market, raise the public awareness on the importance of the fish consumption, to upgrade the lab capability, particularly the private-held labs, in order to improve the analysis output on the fishery quality control, and the make a better fishery product quality control for the domestic market," said the Director.

The 16th WGAFF Summit held in The Hague, Oct. 31-Nov. 1 2013, examined the cooperation development on the food traceability, capacity building inspection fishery products, Value Capture Fishery, and Fish Data Collection Analysis. The Dutch delegation coordinated by Wageningen University also has completed the Inception Phase to compose the Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security Project. "The Dutch team has also accomplished a number of coordinating meeting with all the stakeholders in MMAF and the field trips to the soon-to-be project locations," Anang said. Anang added that the Dutch delegation also has met with the MMAF's Secretary-General, Sjarief Widjaja, on Oct. 16. During the meeting, the Secretary-General reaffirmed that MMAF also possesses the similar program as the Dutch's, but with different packaging. The both countries therefore will synergize their programs in order to be able to be simultaneously implemented as a compact unit. Furthermore, Sjarief informs that the budget allocation is provided by each country, which will be allocated parallely. "MMAF already has the budget allocation for all our planned programs and will not apply for grant from the Dutch government, allowing it to be allocated to raise the investment from the private sectors," he concluded.



For more information, please contact:
Anang Noegroho
Acting Director of the Data Statistic and Information Center
Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries
Ph: (021) 3519070 ext. 7440
Fax. (021) 3519133

Editor: PR Wire
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