REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BOGOR -- A marine and fishery professor of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) said Indonesia has the largest marine economic potential in the world.

Indonesia's marine sustained yield is US$1.2 billion a year, Prof Rochmin Dahuri said here on Tuesday.

"The potential could create 40 million jobs or one third of the country's workforce," Rochmin said on the sidelines of the IPB Ocean Leaders Forum 2014, in this West Java city.

With the potential, Indonesian workers do not have to look for jobs abroad, he said.

Development of the potentials, however, is not easy as it would be a big challenge that need a number of factors, he said.

The first factor is finance , he said, adding, banking support and the fiscal policy are far from significant for development of the potential sector, he said.

Financial support in the form of fund from the state budget set for 2015 is only Rp7 trillion for the marine sector or less than 1 percent of the state budget, he pointed out.

Similarly, banks still see the sectors of sea communication, marine tourism, fisheries , shipyard as risky sectors, he said.

"Bank credits for the sectors are small with interest rates the highest in the world," he added.

The second factor is infrastructure , according to Rochmin saying Indonesia is far lagging behind many countries in the development of maritime infrastructure sector.

In Japan there is a port in every 11 kilometers of its coast line as against 1 for every 2,000 kilometers in Indonesia, he cited.

"Not to mention the issue of sea toll road or maritime connectivity as president elect Joko Widodo has raised. We have very few cargo ships," he said.

The third factor is technology for which the country still heavily dependent on imports, he said.

Other factors include management system which is worse by overlapping in institutions and conflicting regulations, and the factor of illegal fishing and environmental protection, he said.

"I believe our president elect already have program to deal with the five challenges," he said, adding, " we already have two programs to deal with all the challenges and at the same time we also have a concept how to utilize the potential to develop the marine sector."

The former marine and fisheries minister said the Indonesian people should appreciate the president elect for placing sovereignty in food , energy and marine and maritime among his main agenda in economic development.

"In short the coming government will change the marine sector in two ways - solving problem and development of the marine sector so far left untouched," he said.

The results of the IPB Ocean Leadership Forum was expected to contribute inputs to the new government in encouraging development of the marine sector.

The small contribution of only 20 percent to the country's GDP has prompted the IPB to organize the discussion forum, Amril Syahputra Rangkuti, an IPB spokesman, said.

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