According to Saut Hutagalung, the Director of Foreign Marketing of Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the role of partnership in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is very significant to increase the export and to enhance the building capacity of domestic fisheries. “Today, our trade with APEC member is almost reached 90%,” he said on the Fisheries Working Group meeting in Bali (7/6).
Saut said that in 2010, an estimated US $2.6 billion of the total US $2.89 billion the value of fisheries export was generated from the trade with APEC countries. This value is expected to raise 15% this year. “We hope this partnership can be a boost to reach the target US $3.2 billion of fisheries export in 2011,” he added.
In addition to fisheries export, APEC members such as United States of America and Japan which have advanced technology in fisheries management can help Indonesia to increase the fisheries processing and technology. Saut gives a sample of standard for the developing related to food safety, seed technology, and growing fish, as things that Indonesia can be learned from APEC members.
During three days from yesterday (6/6), at least 63 delegations from 15 APEC members attended the annual meeting of the Fisheries Working Group (FWG) and Marine Resources Conservation Working Group. The delegations agreed that the partnership between both of the working groups have better position to achieve the goal based on Parakas Declaration. The partnership and framework for the new working groups will be proposed in the APEC Senior Official Meeting (SOM) on next September.
