Jakarta: President-elect Joko Widodo is coming to power promising a dramatic build-up in the archipelago’s maritime infrastructure.
Part of Joko’s plans call for so-called sea tolls — a network of deep-sea ports across the nation, designed to cut logistics costs between east and west Indonesia.
Joko has said he will set aside Rp15trn to develop the maritime links. Joko said while campaigning that currently the prices of goods could be 30 times more expensive in the east than in the west.
The idea is to build 10 new hub ports, each one capable of handling boxships of up to 10,000 teu.
Economists have, however, questioned where Joko can find the money for this giant development from an already stretched state budget. [24/07/14]
