REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to increase the production of the fishery industry.

"The ministry should focus on increasing the production of fishery industry, particularly the export, as our exports have declined," Jokowi stated here on Wednesday.

The instruction has been submitted to the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti.

The president expressed support for increasing fishery production, both catching and cultivating, in Indonesia.

Every minister in the working cabinet should have a policy for the interest of the nation.

The president affirmed that the policy of sinking foreign fishing boats caught for poaching in Indonesian waters was an effort of the law enforcement.

The sinking of vessels involved in illegal fishing is aimed at creating a deterrent effect. If illegal fishing was handled softly, it would not produce the desired effect.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan earlier remarked that in 2018, there will no longer be the sinking of fishing boats because the government wants to focus on the efforts to increase fish production.

In the meantime, Sjarief Widjaja, director general for capture fisheries of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, remarked that a total of 327 foreign fishing boats have been sunken so far for poaching in Indonesian waters.

Since the last two years, the ministry had been concentrating on the country's sovereignty to guard the nation's fish stock that had been depleted because of illegal fishing activities, he revealed in Cirebon, West Java, in October 2017.

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