THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA OFFICIALS THE MERGER OF PORT SOEs

The merger or merging of Port SOEs was inaugurated by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo through a ceremony held at the Labuan Bajo Port. Previously, on October 1, 2021, President Joko Widodo had signed Government Regulation Number 101 of 2021 concerning the Merger of PT Pelindo I, III, and IV (Persero) into PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Persero).

Present at the inauguration ceremony were Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir, Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi, Minister of Public Development and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono, Deputy Ministers I and II of BUMN, Governor of East Nusa Tenggara Viktor Laiskodat, Regent of Manggarai Barat Edistasius Endi, Board of Commissioners and Directors of PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Persero), as well as Traditional, Religious and Community Leaders of West Manggarai.

"The merger of state-owned port services is expected to create a stronger national port industry through maritime connectivity throughout Indonesia, so that it can help reduce national logistics costs gradually, as well as improve the performance and competitiveness of port SOEs at the global level," said the President Director of PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Persero) Arif Suhartono in his speech.

The Pelindo merger opens up opportunities for companies to go global. This integration will increase Pelindo's position to become the 8th largest container terminal operator in the world with a total container throughput of 16.7 million TEUs. The merger also brings together financial resources, increases leverage and strengthens the company's capital.

"For this reason, we ask for good support and cooperation so that Pelindo can realize its vision of "Becoming a World-Class Integrated and World-Class Maritime Ecosystem Leader," said Arif.

In addition to the ceremony for the merger of BUMN Ports, on this occasion the Multipurpose Terminal Wae Kelambu Port of Labuan Bajo was also inaugurated, which was initiated by the Ministry of Transportation and fully supported by various parties, including Pelindo.

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi explained that the Wae Kelambu Multipurpose Terminal will be focused on serving logistics traffic and loading and unloading of commodities such as containers, general cargo and liquid bulk, as stipulated in the Labuan Bajo Port Master Plan contained in the Decree of the Minister of Transportation. Number KM 117 of 2021.

"The construction of this Multipurpose Terminal is carried out as a follow-up to the direction of the President to make the Labuan Bajo Port in the city center a major tourism area, while the loading and unloading port is moved to Wae Kelambu," said Minister of Transportation Budi.

The Wae Kelambu Multipurpose Terminal has been under construction since August 2020 and has been operating since April 2021. The main facilities from the sea side infrastructure that have been built include: Pier (120x20) square meters, Trestle (60x12) square meters, Causeway (690x20) square meters with a road width of 10.5 meters. In addition, the Container Yard (3 hectares), KSOP Class III Labuan Bajo building is 378 square meters, and a port pool that can accommodate ships up to 25,000 DWT in size.

In addition, port facilities on the land side of the Wae Kelambu Multipurpose Terminal are also equipped with facilities such as Power House, Workshop, Main Gate and Gate in/out, Operational Office, Signage, Base Transceiver Station (BTS), Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO), Warehouse , Mosque, BBM Terminal and other supporting facilities.

In its construction, the concept of environmentally friendly (green port) is applied both in the form of buildings and the use of equipment so that environmental sustainability around the port is maintained.

"The existence of this terminal is expected to improve logistics distribution connectivity in the East Nusa Tenggara region, as well as support the government's program to make Labuan Bajo a super priority tourist destination," added the Minister of Transportation Budi Karya.