REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUPANG -- East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) has offered investment opportunities in salt and seaweed production during a trilateral meeting involving Indonesia, Australia, and Timor Leste held in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai District, Flores Island, on Thursday. The province hoped the two neighboring countries would be interested in investing in those marine products.

The province has a total of 60 thousand hectares for salt farming and 51,870 hectares for seaweed cultivation, Ganef Wurgiyanto, head of the NTT maritime affairs and fisheries office, stated.

Seaweed production regions include the districts of Kupang, Sabu Raijua, Rote Ndao, Alor, Lembata, East Flores, Sikka, East Sumba, and West Manggarai. Seaweed of the Euchema Cottoni and Gracilaria species are majorly cultivated in those regions.

NTT, which shares its borders with Australia and Timor Leste, is optimistic that the two neighboring countries would show interest in investing in the province.

The trilateral meeting also discussed cooperation in the education, health, transportation, and tourism sectors.

Earlier, an official said that the government has been preparing land for salt farming in the eastern region of Indonesia in its effort to achieve salt-sufficiency. The government planned to expand the creation of salt-farming land, until it reaches 40 thousand hectares.

A number of salt-farming has been opened as expansion strategies in the province of NTT. "Such as in the districts of North Timor Tengah, South Timor Tengah, Ende, Malaka, the provincial capital of Kupang, and other regions," said Agung Kuswandono of the Coordinating Maritime Ministry, stated here, on Tuesday.

He remarked that the government steps to open the new salt-farming land are an effort to achieve its target to become self-sufficient in salt production by 2021.

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