Sector
Fishery
Indonesia, boasting the title of the world’s largest archipelagic country with a vast sea area of 5.8 million square kilometers, stands as one of the largest producers and suppliers in the global fisheries market. The abundance of sea area provides Indonesia with a wealth of fisheries products, making fisheries a national leading sector in the country.
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Fishery
Indonesia, boasting the title of the world’s largest archipelagic country with a vast sea area of 5.8 million square kilometers, stands as one of the largest producers and suppliers in the global fisheries market. The abundance of sea area provides Indonesia with a wealth of fisheries products, making fisheries a national leading sector in the country.
There are 23 regions where fisheries stand out as a leading sector, supporting local economies and providing food security. These regions encompass Aceh, Bengkulu, Riau, Lampung, South Sumatra, Central Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and North Kalimantan. Other regions include Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, Maluku, North Maluku, Papua, West Papua, and Bangka Belitung.
In 2022, Indonesia’s fisheries sector contributed a total of Rp505 trillion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Building this strong foundation, the country set an ambitious target of reaching US$7.2 billion in fishery exports by the end of 2023. Previously, total fishery product exports had hovered around US$5 billion to US$6 billion.
Supporting the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP is its production. Throughout the third quarter of 2023, Indonesia’s fisheries production totaled 24.74 million tons. This figure includes both capture fisheries and aquaculture. In aquaculture, the main commodities are seaweed cultivation and shrimp cultivation, while in capture fisheries, the main commodities are tuna, skipjack tuna, and mackerel tuna.
Furthermore, Indonesia’s fisheries sector is experiencing a surge in investment. By the third quarter of 2023, the sector had attracted a total of Rp9.56 trillion in investment, with significant contributions from a mix of domestic sources at Rp5.32 trillion, foreign investors at Rp1.4 trillion, and credit sources at Rp2.84 trillion. Notably, China is the largest foreign investor, contributing Rp370.74 billion, followed by Malaysia with Rp240.4 billion, and Switzerland with Rp152.89 billion, highlighting the increasing international interest in Indonesia’s fisheries potential.
While Indonesia boasts impressive fisheries production and growing investments in its fisheries sector, it is vital to uphold fisheries regulations. These regulations ensure that this valuable sector thrives alongside healthy marine ecosystems. It is reported that Indonesia is scheduled to enforce a new fisheries policy in 2025, which will see quotas assigned to industrial, local, and non-commercial fishers across six designated fishing zones, covering all 11 fisheries management areas (FMAs) in Indonesia. The new quota system responds to a worrying rise in overexploited FMAs, which have increased to 53 percent from 44 percent in 2017.
Latest News
President Prabowo Subianto sprang another foreign policy surprise, or a blunder depending on how one looks at it, by joining the Board of Peace which United States President Donald Trump launched last week as part of his Gaza peace plan.
The President is one of only a handful of head of states or their representatives who signed up to the board at its launch on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Other countries represented were Hungary, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Argentina, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates
Typical of Trump, the event stole the show in the prestigious and high-powered annual business gathering in the Swiss hill resort. Prabowo’s maiden speech in Davos, in which he gave a rosy picture of Indonesia before global investors, got drowned out by the noise that came with the launch of the controversial board.
If this is considered a blunder that many foreign policy scholars have claimed, then it is the biggest one that Prabowo has committed, because of the unknown but likely dire consequences at home and abroad.
Critics say the board undermines international law and overrides the work of the United Nations; it lacks Palestinian involvement; and it confers too much power on its chair, who is none other than Trump, even going beyond his presidency, which ends in 2028.
The worst part of the deal is that it makes no mention of an independent Palestine state as one of the board’s objectives. This is hugely problematic for Indonesia, which has long and persistently campaigned for the creation of a sovereign nation for the Palestinian people.
It is so controversial that many other foreign leaders, including those from traditional US allies in Europe, declined to join the board.
To those who have followed Prabowo’s foreign policy acts, joining the board was actually almost a matter of course. He has wiggled his way to a carve a role for Indonesia in the Israel-Palestine conflict. He was among the eight leaders from Arab and Muslim-majority countries that Trump invited to New York in September to get a sneak preview of his Gaza peace plan. He attended the launch of the plan in Egypt in October. Now joining the Board of Peace fits the trend.
Prabowo has also offered to send up to 20,000 Indonesian soldiers to join the International Stabilization Force that Trump envisages to enforce his Gaza peace plan. Indonesia is the only country that has made that commitment. Earlier Prabowo also offered to take on up to 2,000 Gazans who are injured and traumatized by the war for treatment in Indonesia.
But it was Prabowo’s audacity in joining the board that raised questions about his willingness to go this far in dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflict. This puts him at odds with Indonesia’s long-held policy of consistently supporting the Palestinian people and ruling out opening ties with Israel until they get their homeland, not before.
What other surprises will he spring next?
Forming ties with Israel may not be all that far-fetched now with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also joining the board. Sitting on the same board opens a line of communication that has never existed before in the absence of diplomatic ties. Indonesia could be lined up to sign on to the Abraham Accords, a US initiative to bring Israel and Arab and Muslim-majority countries together.
Prabowo has come up with several foreign policy surprises, including one or two blunders, since he took office in October 2024, but none as serious as this one.
In November 2024 during a visit to Beijing, he signed on to a joint statement with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to work on joint development cooperation in what the statement described as a disputed territory in the South China Sea. Indonesia officially rejected the word “disputed” since China’s claim is based on it being a traditional fishing ground, which, under international law cannot be used as the basis for a claim. The Foreign Ministry somehow was able to pull Indonesia out of that commitment.
Prabowo agreed to send home a Philippine woman on death row for drug smuggling during a meeting with Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in November 2024. The government later came up with the idea of a bilateral-prisoner transfer deal to make it possible.
Some scholars say his decision to join BRICS, an intergovernmental organization led by China, Russia and India, with little discussion and preparations, was another blunder, although it has not been a disaster.
Many seriously doubt now that joining Trump’s Board of Peace will confer any benefit for Indonesia and may be a betrayal of the Palestinian people and undermine Indonesia’s standing at home and abroad. It looks like another blunder, but one from which neither Prabowo nor the Foreign Ministry will be able to extract Indonesia.
