MARITIME AS INDONESIA’S WEAPON IN AFTA AND AEC

A.    Introduction

ASEAN Free Trade Area (“AFTA”) and ASEAN Economic Community (“AEC”) are the main concern of Southeast Asia economy today. AFTA and AEC are basically the same, both have the mission of making Southeast Asia a free trade region with the free flow of goods, labors, investments, and services. Putri and Putri (2014) stated that AFTA is included in the establishment of AEC, “with the main objectives of creating a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy by 2015”.  To objectify them, every single economic sector must be reinforced in order to gain massive support in economic growth, including maritime sector. Indonesia’s newly installed president, Joko Widodo, proclaimed his maritime doctrine in his election manifesto on May 2014. Shekhar and Liow (2014) conclude that “His vision goes beyond the idea of merely achieving maritime security and seeks to transform Indonesia into a maritime power”. Therefore, considering the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Indonesia as a maritime country is important in attempt to win the maritime business.

B.     Main Problems

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world with 3.273.810 km² of territorial sea area according to Invonesia (2013). We may call this abundance of marine resources a blessing. We are never running out of fish despite of we take a lot every day plus there are still many illegal fishermen from neighboring countries who fish in our sea and take a lot of our fish, too. We already have aquaculture to develop the fish and other species groups, such as crustaceans, mollusks, and aquatic plants. Compared to other ASEAN countries, we are winning of marine resources. According to Worldometers (2015), by the end of 2015 the population of Indonesia is estimated to be at 255,708,785 and by 2020, Indonesia is predicted to have 269,413,457 residents. If we compare our population to other maritime countries in Southeast Asia, we are on the top of the list. Our biggest rival in maritime, Philippines, for example, is estimated to have only 101,802,706 residents by the end of 2015 and predicted to have 110,403,723 by 2020. From these statistics we can make a conclusion that our potential of human resources is greater than the others. Synergized number of marine resources and human resources that we have will advantage us in the competition.

Unfortunately, wealth management has always been our issue until today. Indonesian fishermen have not lived in prosper yet although we have vast sea. Illegal fishing is still prevalent in our sea. ANTARA News (2014) reported the finding from the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department that 30 percent of illegal fishing in the world occurs in Indonesia and it “has caused Rp100 trillion worth of losses to the state each year”. Our men especially those in fisheries industry still lack of maritime education and training while professional maritime labors are urgently needed. We also have problems in terms of education in general which makes us less competitive than Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand in making adequate educated workforce. These weaknesses that we have are obstacles that must be handled immediately to maintain a clear path for us to reach our goal. 

The threats to our mission in making maritime as our power to face AFTA and AEC are South China Sea conflict and the fact that some other ASEAN nations have more skilled labors than Indonesia. In South China Sea conflict, Indonesia has always been on the neutral side. However, being in the middle of conflicting countries has its own risks. If both parties, China and ASEAN countries which is asserting claims, continue to dispute then use military force, Indonesia will also get the negative impact. Moreover, Natuna Islands that belong to us is close with the conflict area. There is a possibility that China will claim it in the future due to its location, though. Not only focusing on South China Sea conflict, we still have to be concerning the fact that some of ASEAN members are countries which are more developed than us. Those countries are ahead from us in terms of education, technology, and economic stability. We have to be careful because trade liberalization in AFTA and AEC will cause free movement of labors. If our workforce quality does not get any better, the job fields inside our country, including our maritime industries, will be occupied and controlled by foreign workers.

Notwithstanding we have weaknesses and threats, we can actually maximize our strengths yet minimize our weaknesses and cope the threats to create opportunities. Koran Sindo (2014) reported that 80 percent of our marine resources potential remains untouched. That means, if we could empower the whole of our marine resources potential, our income from maritime resources would be four times bigger than what we already have now. Moreover, the maximization of the whole maritime resources will enlarge our fisheries industry and absorb enormous number of workforce. South China Sea conflict, is also giving us opportunities, too. By not taking side on the conflict, our country will be seen as one of few ASEAN countries which are safe for investments. Besides, our political system is considered as stable and we have low labor costs. This condition can be used as the key to attract investors to choose us instead of other ASEAN countries.

C.    Response and Solution

President Joko Widodo is first Indonesian president to aim the country to be a maritime axis. Our government is now making concrete steps to overcome the maritime. Indonesia's new Marine and Fishery Affairs Minister, Susi Pudjiasti, has shown her commitment to crack down the stealing act by running a new policy to sink illegal fishing ships under instruction of Mr. President. We just need to provide better education and training to our human resources so we can have adequate skilled labors that are ready to compete with foreign labors. Since we are going to face new economic environment that will be brought by AFTA and AEC in no time, this is the right moment to fix our marine resources management. Moreover, we can use this advantageous economic situation to develop and promote our marine tourism since we have plenty of beautiful seas. We, Indonesians, have to think positively and support our government. All of us have to work together to build our maritime power in the hope that the label of Indonesian maritime will soon change from “Sleeping Giant” into “The Giant Who Is Ready to Conquer the Southeast Asian Economy” or maybe “The Giant Who Is Ready to Conquer the World”.

By: Sindy Alicia Gunawan