Indonesia floats port expansion

JAKARTA: Container ships dot the horizon off the coast of Jakarta, as cranes and labourers work on an ambitious, economy-boosting project to expand the port network in the world´s largest archipelago nation.
New Priok will be Indonesia´s biggest port once completed, and is one of 24 ports planned to overhaul maritime connections in Southeast Asia´s top economy, which comprises more than 17,000 islands.
President Joko Widodo is leading efforts to improve dilapidated maritime infrastructure in a country where ships face lengthy delays before berthing and goods can get stuck for days as they run a gauntlet of government agency checks.
"This is no longer a wish, but a necessity," Widodo recently said of improving ports after Indonesian growth hit a six-year low of 4.7 percent in the first quarter, a blow for a leader who won power on a pledge to revive the economy.
The port plan is part of a broader scheme to improve infrastructure, from potholed roads to creaking train lines, as the country seeks to lure foreign investors and pull out of a long slowdown driven by falling prices of its key commodity exports. Action is urgently needed -- Indonesia´s infrastructure is so woeful that it is cheaper to transport goods from China to the country´s most populous island of Java than to bring them from the Indonesian part of Borneo, which is far closer, according to the World Bank.
Improving ports is particularly critical for a nation that straddles the Indian and Pacific Oceans and is home to important shipping routes. As well as attracting new investment, the scheme could reduce the price of consumer goods through lower transport costs and help develop more remote parts of the archipelago.Widodo, a former furniture exporter who knows well the problems of the country´s ports, is taking a personal interest in the project but it faces formidable challenges.
There are growing doubts his administration, which has been criticised over its failure to kickstart major infrastructure projects, will be able to push through the plans due to a lack of organisation and a dysfunctional bureaucracy.